Part I
The party emerged from the Mansion on the morning of 16 Rhaan and headed deeper into the jungle in search of their black dragon quarry. The jungle grew thicker and darker as they went along. Tselem and Azeri also began to notice traces of dark magic, and necrotic magic at that. (Taumir & Maak Tol felt a growing unease, but did not notice the magic themselves.)
The sun was not yet high in the sky but the party was cloaked in gloom when they saw it: the mouth of a great cave. Given everything, they knew this was the lair of the dragon. It was far too dark to see inside, so Tselem tried sending in a magical sensor. They were able to see through his scryglass that there was indeed a dragon inside, sitting on some large glowing white object.
Taumir decided to try sending in an advance attack in the form of one of Hapselmath's alchemical weapons. Unfortunately, he selected a jar of mayonnaise. The dragon seemed more bemused than anything else, and cackled evilly for them to come and face their doom. When they hesitated, they saw him leap from his perch and fly towards them!
As he passed the view of the scryglass and charged down the dark tunnel towards them at the mouth of his cave, the party realized that this dragon was undead. He had no flesh, but was made entirely of bone, and a phylactery glowed dimly in his forehead. As this evil creature bore down upon them, Tselem and Azeri could sense his malevolent magic and realized to their disgust that this horrible beast had done this to himself, had willingly become an abomination.
The dragon landed just short of the mouth of the cave and began shooting dark fire at them. The party was initially hampered by the lack of light, but Tselem set his staff aglow. One of their first attacks knock the beast off his feet, and then Azeri and Maak Tol (using a magical chariot and magical wings respectively) poised themselves above him, pinning him to the ground! The frustrated monster continued to lash out with his claws, teeth, and fire, but the party was able to rain powerful blows on him somewhat with impunity!
Part II
The party kept the dragon pinned even as their supply of spells began to run dry. The dragon did eventually get to his feet, but it turned out his decision to fight in such close quarters was a poor one. The party did not let up, and their perseverance was rewarded. The dragon's phylactery finally shattered, and the evil creature disintegrated into dust.
The party immediately realized that this presented a problem: how could harvest the bones of this creature if its bones had already turned to dust?! Tselem tried halfheartedly to recombine some of the dust, but they all knew it was futile. Even if this dragon in its undead form had been a a black dragon capable of being part of their ultimate weapon, there was no way to use it now.
Tired and disappointed, the party trudged to the back of the cave to investigate what been causing the eerie white glow. To their disgust they found it was a pile of enchanted bones. They were somewhat gladdened to see that light was now fading, as the death of the dracolich seemed to have dissipated whatever evil spell was over them.
Rewards
- 25,500 XP each! Time to level up!
- 14,000 GP total
No comments:
Post a Comment