The Dragon's Lair

Year: 1491, Month: Mirtul, Date: 1st

The Dragon's Lairs

The night passes by peacefully.  When I awake with the dawn, Felgolos is impatiently pacing back and forth.  He says he thinks the Dragon siblings have left their lairs to go hunting.  I follow my routine and complete my prayers to Tyr before carefully donning my armor.

By the time I finish, the rest of my companions are ready to get going.  Leo has the three Ioun stones slowly orbiting his head.  It would be enough to make me very dizzy.

We give the building where I saw the Giant Scorpion a wide birth.  There are actually two Scorpions inside.  It looks like it is their nest, and both are intently watching us, but they are making no aggressive moves towards us and we pass them by. 

Off to the east we can see two massive stone docks.  The docks look heavily damaged, but they are still standing.  Beyond the docks is a gully filled with sand about 70 feet deep, which leads to two stone boats.  These must be the legendary stone ships of Ascore that Leo was telling us about as we entered the city.  We estimate it will take us about an hour to reach them.

As we make our way through the sand, Leo argues with me in hushed voices about making us invisible so that we cross the sand and minimise the chance of us being seen should the Dragons return.  Sneaking is not honorable and I refuse to allow him to make me invisible, but he continues to argue.  Felgolos head is up continuously scanning the sky for any sign of Anaxaster and Chezzaran returning from their hunt.  The argument only ends as Leo finally realises I won't give up and that he isn't powerful enough to make us all invisible.  I didn't tell him that I have a potion of invisibility in my backpack!  I must remember to sell it at my earliest opportunity.

As we cross the gully, and get closer to the ships, we can see that one is upside down, and the other is upright but broken in half on top of the sand.  Felgolos thinks it is likely each boat is probably a lair of each of the Dragons.  We continue on our way, but our muted conversation now turns to what should we do if the Dragons return?  We devise a plan where Leo can conjure his hut every few hours and we can try and wait out the Dragons in there.  

The first lair

We decide to investigate the ship that is the right way up first.  The deck is only about 5 feet above the level of the sand so it is simple leap.  Celery is not so agile though, and she falls back trying to get to the deck, so I go back and help her up.  Once on the deck, we see at one end of the ship that there are 4 winged statues all facing us.  I ask Felgolos what they are.  After a few seconds thought he replies, he doesn't know but he thinks they may be trouble.  What kind of trouble?  The Dragon's mother Iymrith is well known for creating statues and to be able to inhabit them or give them life.  Below the statues is some sort of nest piled high with many objects, pieces of art, shiny things, chests, and furniture.

With no better plan, we move towards the nest to see if Felgolos' pipe tobacco is there.   As we near the nest, one of statues begins to move, stretches its wings and flies straight at me biting and clawing.  Before I have time to react and draw my sword, the living stone creature manages to claw me between a gap in the plates of my armor and draws a little blood.  I manage to block the creature's bite by shoving my shield in its face.

Celery reacts quicker than I, and praying to Lathandar, conjures three rays of fire which she hurls at the stone creature attacking me.  Two fly harmlessly past, but one strikes the creature on an outstretched wing. 

A bell tolls, and the creature's stoneskin turns a darker shade of grey, veins stand out against his skin, he stops and his face contorts in a slight grimace of pain.

A second of the stone creatures comes to life and flies like an arrow directly at Celery and attacks her.  Light flares before the creature and it's bites and claws are blocked by Celery's shield.

I utter a quick prayer to Tyr , and I am rewarded with a shimmering field of light that envelops my body, providing me with Tyr's protection.  I go on the attack and my blows are rewarded in a shower of stone chips erupting from where my thrusts strike the creature.  I cannot tell whether the creature even feels pain, but so far the damage does not seem to have slowed it.

The remaining two stone statues stretch their wings and join the melee.  One flies up and over me, landing behind Leo and clawing him on the way past. The last statue engages Felgolos, but the halfling Dragon ducks and weaves avoiding the statues attacks, all the while keeping his eyes directed to the sky, watching for the return of the Dragon duo.

My opponent attacks again, but I easily block the first claw with my shield, and parry the second with my blade.  He tries to bite me, but only finds the metallic taste of my armor.  He better not have put a dent in it!

Whilst I keep the statue in-front of me distracted, Celery attacks from the side, her Mace smashing into it's back and shattering it into thousands of pieces.  As she swings, she whispers a prayer to Lathandar and a spectral Mace materialises behind her opponent and scores a hit to the back of it's head, although it barely seems to notice.

Leo pirouettes on the spot to face his attacker, drawing the Wand of Magic Missiles from his belt, and pointing it at the statue.  I sigh and shout, "That is for emergencies!", as three glowing darts spring forth from the end of the wand and strike the stone creature, making small pits in its stony chest.

Celery's adversary feigns a bite attack which she moves to block, opening her flanks to the statues claws which find a gap in her armor and I see her wince in pain.

Felgolos swings his arms and I swear I see his halfling hands transform into giant draconic claws as they rake the creatures stone sides.  Chunks of stone fly from Celery's stone statue as I use my sword to hew them from it's side.  I feel some blows to my armour from behind which come from the creature that was by Leo, but they are absorbed by my armour causing me no pain, so I ignore the creature as I concentrate on the statue before me.

Felgolos continues to spar with his statue all the while keeping an eye to the sky concerned in case the Dragon duo should return.  In a combination reminiscent of how the first statue was vanquished, Celery attacks the statue assailing me from behind with her Mace as well as it's spiritual twin.  The creature hesitates, not knowing which to block, allowing both to strike home.  A bell tolls again, and the creature's stoneskin turns almost black, veins stand out against it's stone skin, before shattering.

My opponent unable to get through my defences, turns it's attention to Celery and finds an unprotected neck area and takes a bite out of her scaly skin.

Felgolos is still toying absently with his stone creature, his attacks are half-hearted, as he is distracted watching for the return of the Dragon duo, and the stone creature easily avoids them. 

I feint low, but the stone creature is slow, so I turn the feint into a real attack, striking the creature solidly on the upper leg.  I follow quickly with an attack high to its chest.  The  creature is still trying to block my first attack, and my sword slices across it's chest, shattering it into many large pieces.

Despite his distraction, the creature is unable to get past Felgolos' defences. Celery shouts Leo to go start searching the nest, as she moves to engage the remaining stone creature, striking it with a solid blow with the Mace of Lathandar.  The spectral Mace floats to the creature, but Lathandar's will must be waning as its blow just glances off the creatures stone skin.  Felgolos throws a weak punch, keeping the creature occupied, but causing no damage.  I close the distance and engage the solitary creature, but in my eagerness, my first strike just glances off the creatures wing.  I take a deep breath, and compose myself, clearing my mind and reaching the void as I was taught by Hlam, before striking once more, this time my sword comes away with lumps of stone.

The creature makes to flee, but before it moves 2 feet, I leap at the opportunity to make a killing blow.  My excitement gets the better of me a second time in a few seconds, and all I hit is air.  Celery on the other hand smashes it with her Mace in the face.  A crack appears in its face, slowly spreading and expanding, until it falls to the ground in a heap of plain gray stone.   I look around, catching my breath and quietly say a prayer of apology to Tyr.  I must maintain the void and keep my concentration as Hlam taught.

Felgolos searches through the nest but can't find his pouch of tobacco.  Time is short, we don't know how long we have before the Dragon duo return, so we grab a few handfuls of treasure before making our way to the other stone ship.