Our Heroes:
- The Mighty Xyzzifax played by Alex
- Minion Samson played by William
- Minion Jaric played by Dave
- Minion Lantor played by Brandon
- Minion Braedon played by Terry
The party is level 5 at this point. This account is mainly written by Xyzzifax. We beginon Day 58 of the campaign.
As the party prepares to leave furby-bonk, Xyzzifax makes one final trip to the mage’s guild to see about a designated teleportation area. The guild does in fact offer this service, for the mere price of 100gp/year. Xyzzifax purchases the premium teleportation authorization package.
Malice and Sir Kentor have further business to conduct in the city, and teleport through the mirror of mental prowess at a predetermined future date.
As the group prepares to leave the city, there are rumblings afoot. Merchant traffic coming from Hommlet seems to have come to a complete halt.
Xyzzifax theorizes that this could be due to the monsters the group encountered on their way in to the city, or something even worse.
Minion Jaric runs afoul of some locals who attempt to burn him at the stake, however acquiesce to let him go under Xyzzifax’s assurances that he will be more useful to the city of furby-bonk as a slave sentenced to defend the city. Minion Samson sells this by creating some manacles.
6 hours into the party’s journey the group find the remnants of a shattered wagon. There are scattered weapons, and a strange smell lurking in the air. Some scattered blood is found amidst The shattered cart.
No bodies and no tracks are found.
The party continues uneventfully until the second day. As the group approaches the mid point between Hommlet and furby-bonk, marked by a small ruined keep, Bubo alerts the group to a winged shape in the sky.
Sending danger, the group makes for the ruined keep, with Xyzzifax casting unseen servant to drive the carriage if need be. The group arrives at the ruined keep with a few seconds before the thing arrives, but it has gotten significantly closer. Sir Lantor notes a greenish hue, and the group begins to disperse, and take up positions within the ruins.
At this precise moment, a second foe, a green dragon! steps out from behind ruins. The mighty Xyzzifax and his minions are to contend with not one, but two green dragons!
With it’s mate still closing in from the sky, the first dragon launches itself towards the party, breathing a cone of poison on minions Lantor and Braedon. Lantor remembers to hold his breath, but Braedon does not fare as well, and dives into the ruins, attempting to hide himself from danger. Minion Lantor, undeterred, launches into the beast, carving out 4 large sections of the beast’s hide, christening his new magical great sword with dragon guts. Minion Samson, having taken a position in the rubble, launches his now magically returning javelin (twice) while minion Jaric charges the beast, mightily swinging his staff of striking, knocking the beast left and right. The beast responds in kind by tearing into minion Lantor with its oversized teeth and claws, but, who manages to parry some of the worst of the bite. The mighty Xyzzifax attempts to cast slow on the great beast, but his spell fails to affect it. At that moment, the second beast arrives, landing amongst the melee, attempting to defend its mate, clawing and biting into minion Lantor, who falls under the ferocious assault. Minion Braedon responds with a stream of arrows, while minion Jaric calls out with magical healing to his comrades in range, reviving Sir Lantor, and commanding his spiritual weapon to strike the wounded dragon, dealing the killing blow to the beast!
The great and powerful Xyzzifax casts slow on the remaining dragon, and this time the dragon is affected, seeming to move in slow motion!
The party focuses its efforts on the wounded dragon, with Samsons javelin, Braedon’s bow, Jaric’s staff, and Sir Lantor’s blade, the dragon is battered. The beast roars, leaping into the air, and breathes its cloud of toxic breath on the party. With his minions out of the line of fire, Xyzzifax draws his wand of fireballs, charging up a mighty blast, and launches it at the dragon, engulfing it in flames, and sending it crashing to the ground as a flaming corpse. The smell is horrid. The party takes a moment to gather themselves, scanning the skies for more threats, but none are found. Xyzzifax and his minions are officially dragonslayers.
The background here is that the dragons have newly arrived in the area but they haven't had time to set up much of a lair, gather treasure, or lay eggs. So it's a good fight but not a double-dragons' worth of hoard.
Braedon manages to skin one of the beasts, but the other is too charred to be of use.
The party returns to Hommlet, sporting the skin and head of their recently vanquished foes.
Having done a great service for the town of Hommlet, and Viscounty of Verbebonc, Xyzzifax leads his congregation of minions before Burne and Rufus, wanting to purchase some land in the town to build a structure. Having picked the tall hill overlooking the tower, Rufus remarks that generally, that would need to be owned by a noble considering the defensive position.
This launches Xyzzifax into his bid to be appointed a noble. Having rid the road of bandits, cleared the moathouse, raided the temple of elemental evil, slayed ogres, bulette, wyverns, and now TWO dragons, the case is clear. Rufus and Burne admit that Xyzzifax does in fact have a solid claim, and says that they will talk to the Viscount.
The party also visits with Azin, the magic carpet riding, magic item merchant. They sell the ebony fly, and purchase a smattering of minor magic items, a ring of water walking, rope of climbing, and an arrow catching shield.
This was a really good session with wrapping up the visit to Verbobonc - including Jaric blowing some social rolls and talking himself into trouble - then heading out onto the road. unlike the trip to the city, I had decided to have a set encounter along the road this time. I was looking at ToV's encounter balance guidelines and figured out that a pair of adult green dragons were going to make a decent encounter for the party and as we hadn't had any dragons in the campaign yet I decided to give it a whirl. It was a good outdoor fight that lasted 5 rounds and had the party feeling some danger. Lantor dropped but he was carrying quite the load with Kentor being out and buff-master Malice being out as well. The group wasn't giving him too much grief for it given the situation.
Combat-wise they are turning into serious combatants - armor classes are creeping up, the damage they can deal is creeping up, the cleric is a real front-liner now when he wants to be, and the wizard is exploring more of his utility spells - like the slow spell he used here. Future battles, especially with a full team, are going to be a challenge.
This is the first open conversation about going for nobility titles and claiming some land. The whole party is interested, the wizard is just the most vocal about it. It's going to add a really fun extra element to the campaign.
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| Opening of the fight where they are entering the ruined keep and the other dragon steps out from behind the tower. |
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