The party took a moment to breath and celebrate! Azeri dispersed her magical chariot, Maak Tol turned back into a tiefling, and Tselem let the vortexes and portals he had created fade. Then they went about the business of stripping the corpse. Tselem made an earring out of one of the bones, and Taumir took some of the ribs to make arrows. Azeri and Maak Tol were less inclined to make such trophies and collected what they needed for their divine weapon.
After resting for a bit, the party took stock of their situation. They knew that the dragon's lair, which was sure to contain a massive hoard, was certainly somewhere under the swamp. They weren't sure they felt like mucking around in said swamp, but they didn't want to just leave. Tselem cast Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion and the party went in, and they spent the next several hours thinking of different plans.
Taumir, half-jokingly, suggested they drain the swamp. They all chuckled ... and then Tselem's face lit up. He realized that they could absolutely do that! By casting a magical gate at the bottom the swamp and have the other end come out on top of a linked portal, they could remove a huge portion of the water! Simple calculations of the size of the body of water told them they'd have to get over 225,000 gallons of water out. A linked portal could only be held open for 30 seconds, but they realized that Tselem and Azeri could cast consecutive portals, and that a minute was almost enough time to drain everything!
Delighted with the audacity of this strategy, they plunged ahead: where should send all this water? Someone brought up the idea of sending it to the prison Edge was in, to set him free! They worried for a second this might drown him, only to remember that, as a living construct, Edge doesn't need to breathe! They used scrying magic to find Edge, and discovered he was in prison in Greenheart, in the Eldeen Reaches, and there was a portal near him they could use! The scrying showed them their friend ironically playing the harmonica in his cell. Taumir shouted hello, but Edge couldn't see or hear them, the magic was 'one-way'. He appeared intrigued by the magic window that appeared in his cell but in true Edge fashion, he then shrugged and went back to his harmonica. The party was gladdened to see their friend still in good spirits, and were now even more resolved to spring him.
The next morning (27 Rhaan), they emerged from the Mansion and walked to the edge of the swamp. Maak Tol and Taumir handed over the gold to compensate Tselem & Azeri for the spell components they were going to be using up here, and then stepped back. They started working on their portals, and then, at the exact moment, Tselem cast the gate, and a massive flood of water poured out from the end of the gate into the portal! Maak Tol cheerily tossed in an ale bottle which the night before he'd replaced the liquid contents with a note for Edge. The bottle disappeared into the stream. Through the portals the party could hear surprised and baffled shouts as the flood poured down on the heads of the jailers in Greenheart. As soon as Tselem's portal closed, Azeri opened hers in the same spot, and the flood continued!
Once Azeri's portal closed, Tselem dispersed the gate. A final thousand gallons of water splashed onto the forest floor, and the party turned back to look at the swamp. It had indeed been drained! There was still several feet of water in the lowest section, but what had once been a dark and forbidding cesspool was now a plain, damp pit. (Tselem later estimated that they got about 65% of the total water out.)
The party made their way down the newly exposed mud cliffs to the remaining water below, as they could now clearly see the entrance to the dragon's lair just below the surface! (Maak Tol more fell down, reaching the bottom in a muddy heap.) They dove under the water, and swam a good distanc through an underwater tunnel, breaking the surface of an underground lake within a huge cavern. In the middle of this cavern was an island, and on that island, was a massive, enormous treasure hoard. Two thousand years worth of ill-gotten dragon loot glittered and gleamed before their eyes! Piles of gold a dozen feet high, armor and scrolls and weapons and diamonds and books and trinkets and even mundane items like mirrors, all piled so high and thick they couldn't begin to guess how many there were. It was more treasure than they'd ever be able to spend in a lifetime, and it was all theirs for the taking!!
The party swam to the shore of the island, overwhelmed with how well this was paying off!!
After a few minutes of metaphorically swimming in their pile of money (and Maak Tol carving his name into some things), the party began to think about what they were going to do with all of this. At first they were inclined to just leave it here and come back when their adventures were done, but they decided to take some of it out. They decided they should pay it forward - or back, as the case may be, and give some to the various people who'd gotten wrapped up in their adventures inadvertently. So the next day (28 Rhaan), Azeri teleported the other three to Fairhaven. Tselem took a whole wheelbarrow full of gold to Miri, the professor they'd nearly gotten killed some months back. They also donated a significant sum to the University, not-so-subtly mentioning they wouldn't mind having a building or two named after them. They they spent some of their loot on ale and books, and at a pre-arranged time, Azeri teleported them back to the cave.
The next day (the first day of the month of Sypheros), they repeated this, this time going to Owl's Perch, where Akta and Reita lived. Again, a wheelbarrow of money was exchanged. Akta and Reita were a little apprehensive to see them - their visits were typically harbingers of doom after all. But after Akta and Tselem caught up, and the money was exchanged, all their fears vanished. Reita make them a wonderful home-cooked meal, and that evening they started making their way back to Azeri's pick up point.
As they walked through the streets of this town, a gang of four human thugs stepped out and drew their weapons. The party nearly doubled over with laughter.
Rewards
- 47,000 XP each!
- Well what do you know, there actually was an Iron of Spite in the dragon's hoard! (Player's Handbook p. 249)
- You also found a Rod of Forceful Invocation +6 (Player's Handbook 2 p. 205)
- 35,000 GP each!
- What happens with the rest of the hoard will be determined in the next session.
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