Session #49
The next morning (8 Barrkas), the party awoke slowly, having partied the night away. Tselem went down to deliver a message to Miri, his old professor in Fairhaven while the rest of the party slowly got themselves together. They then discussed what their next move was going to be. Now that their main objective had been accomplished, they decided to go back and see how some of their side quests had turned out, specifically the time they delivered a warning about an imminent attack to the halfings of the Talenta Plains.
As they were preparing to go however, an earthquake-like tremor went through the building. They began to near explosions and screams int the distance. They rushed outside and saw that a large part of the city was engulfed in flames. A huge dragon was flying over the city and sending out blasts of lightning, causing explosions and mass destruction!
The people of Korth were fleeing from the dragon and his fury as fast as they could, but the party girded up their loins and ran towards the dragon. (Taumir trailed a little further behind, but he eventually caught up.) Once they were close enough, they sent spells and arrows flying at it. This caught the dragon's attention immediately, and once he saw them, he roared, "There you are!" and began to attack them!
As the battle commenced, Tselem realized that he knew who this dragon was - this was Rthumar, a great blue dragon that had terrorized the northern shores of Karrnath for decades. He was a fierce devotee of Tiamat.
Very quickly the party was able to force Rthumar to land, and began blasting him with their most powerful magical effects. In the heat of the battle, both sides took massive damage. And yet in the midst of this fury, Azeri showed that she was truly was a follower of the mischievous fox spirit and tried to climb into the dragon's back to ride him!! She was knocked off when one of Tselem's spells knocked Rthumar onto his side and restrained him with magical chords, but once Rthumar broke free, she climbed up yet again!
The severity of the attacks against him and the audacity of this cleric's approach sent Rthumar into a rage, and he fired lighting attacks all around him in a storm of spitting, thrashing destruction. He attempted to put some distance between him and party by flying up into the air, but Maaktol gave chase, and Taumir pelted the monster with arrows. Tselem tried to put a lightning cage around him, only to realize a little later that that probably wasn't going to do much good against a lightning creature.
Session #50
Both Tselem and Azeri had conjured ghostly familiars to launch secondary attacks against their foe - Tselem had a ghostly sword that made some ineffective whacks against the monster's tail, while Azeri had a full-fledged ghostly warrior which engaged him at point-blank range.
Tselem decided to try a new tactic, and created an arcane gate that would allow his allies to move from the ground to Rthumar's back. Azeri once again tried to mount the beast (having been knocked off once again earlier), and succeeded again! This time Maaktol joined suit, leaping through the arcane gate to bring his sword to bear against the dragon's neck. Rthumar tried to claw these two annoyances off, but could not, even after he returned to the ground.
The party was struggling to maintain the fight, but at last Rthumar began to falter. Tselem's ghost sword and Azeri's ghost warrior now began to show some mettle of their own, finally landing some serious blows. The party saw actual fear begin to well up in the evil creature's eyes. And then Azeri's ghost warrior fired a magical arrow directly into the monster's brain. Rthumar screamed in one last throe of agony, and then collapsed in a heap.
The scourge of Karrnath was dead!!
The party gasped with relief, having thrown all their considerable abilities into this battle. After resting a minute, they surveyed their surroundings. The city around them was razed and burning - the destruction was immense. Once they had caught their breath, they began to look for people in the rubble. They found a few - some were already dead, but some were still alive. Tselem and Azeri worked to heal one particularly injured man they found. Meanwhile, Taumir and Maaktol began cutting trophies off the dragon's corpse.
As the dust settled further, people began to gather around the scene of the battle. They gawked with fear and adoration at the brave adventurers who stood triumphant over the corpse of this mighty dragon! After a little while, some of the city guards began to show up as well. One particularly brave and astonished fellow came up and offered voluminous and subservient praise, and asked them if they wanted to come meet the King. The party agreed.
The guards led the party down the main boulevard of Korth, out of the destroyed section of the city and into the royal section, which was unharmed. People lined the streets to watch them as they went. Azeri tried to pump the crowd up, but the people were too terrified of them, so she settled for cowing them into applauding. Tselem created a small enchantment over the party's heads depicting their glorious battle.
When they arrived at the palace, they went directly into the throne room, where King Kaius III received them as he sat in court. He heaped praise upon them, though there was something oddly rigid about it. The party received his thanks, and then asked if he might have a reward for them, specifically a very powerful magic item.
The king only looked at them blankly, at which point another man, who appeared to be one of the king's vizers, stepped forward. He said that he would be happy to discuss such matters with them, but could they do so in private? The party said they would speak to him this evening, at which point the party was taken off to freshen up and settle into royal guest chambers, before a grand feast was thrown in their honor.
That evening, weary from battle and stuffed with food, the party met privately with this vizer, who gave his name as Sirnas. He said he was a cleric of Aueron (who happened to be marginally the deity that Tselem honored) and that Aueron had appeared to him and shown him a vision. Aueron, said Sirnas, has learned that Tiamat is a trying to extend her reach into this plane, that that is why Cyre became the Mournland, that that is why Rthumar came so far south to attack Korth directly. Sirnas said that the party has proved that they are mighty warriors, that they can succeed at tasks that whole nations could not. For this reason, Sirnas said, Aureon has chosen them to fight Tiamat and her evil.
Azeri was the first one to realize what Sirnas was getting at: "Are you saying you want us to kill a god?"
Sirnas leaned forward and said with great intensity: "That is exactly what I am saying!"
The party took a moment to process this momentous news. The first question that arose of course is 'how???' Sirnas said that there is a way, that if they slay one ancient dragon of each of the chromatic orders and fashion a magical sword from the bones, they will have a weapon that can defeat Tiamat and destroy her completely.
The party was tired, and wanted to go to bed, so they suggested that they and Sirnas consult with other high-level clerics of Aureon to know more about how to go forward. Sirnas agreed and the party retired after an intense and exhausting day.
Rewards
- 14,000 XP each!
- 70,000 GP total!
- A Tooth of Choas (it's a level 24 [+5] dagger; see Player's Handbook 2, p. 204)
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