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Memoirs of a Lawyer turned Dungeoncrawler (Updated May 13, 2008)
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<blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 2990840" data-attributes="member: 939"><p>Book XI</p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Sixteen – Rumors and Landlords</p><p></p><p> Bellanon’s streets were full of commerce. I located no less than five different large shoppes of magic, carrying all sorts of strange and wondrous things. I found a gem that improves one’s social standing, which I just had to have. It set me back nine thousand pieces of gold. I also found some gloves to aid my writing and poise. What interested me most of all was a store were I could take items of magic I had found in my career as an ‘adventurer’ and they would hold and sell them on consignment, giving me far more gold that most shoppes in the town of Cauldron ever did. I knew I would need to raise a lot of cash to gain my rightful place as a high noble, so I placed several items I had seldom used for sale there. </p><p> Strangely, while I walked the streets of Bellanon, rumors of Cauldron were the main topic of street conversation. I heard that the Noble Five would rebuild the city. Further inquiry led to the root of the rumor – they had pledged to pay a good portion of the rebuilding costs. They must have lots of ready cash for that. I need to improve my own prospects if I’m to make an impression!</p><p> Morwen informed me, via mindlink, that she heard the the Last Laugh was destroyed during the eruption. </p><p> Ee spoke as well, “me heard rumor new group coming to town to replace Noble Five. Me think that us.” I wondered if that could work to our advantage. </p><p></p><p> Our business in the Capitol complete, we returned to the streets of Cauldron by teleportation circle. Krynyn was there waiting for us, eager for our return. He looked downright distressed. Could I not read his mind, I could easily have read his face. All was not well. </p><p> “My new lands are under draconic assault!” he said. Apparently the lands the King had given him as his reward, to supply him income to support his temple, were not quite the windfall he had originally thought. </p><p> “The citizens there are abandoning their farms and leaving the area because of dragons residing there. They’ve had reports of a blue, black, white, green, and even a red dragon.” That sounded serious to me. I remembered that even one dragon, of the black variety, was a tough opponent. I wondered if we could safely face five (or more)? And yet five dragons seemed unlikely, especially five different dragons of different species. Perhaps it was a marauding practitioner of illusion magic. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. </p><p> Distracted by Krynyn’s outburst upon seeing us, I did not notice until we were leaving the teleportation entry point that Krynyn was now being followed by a rather large creature he called a rhinoceros. I asked if it was his new pet, and he said, “no, this is my cohort.” I decided not to probe deeper. I really did not want to probe his mind to figure out just what Krynyn wanted with a “cohort” that was a two ton animal with a large horn on its face.</p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Seventeen – Paid Teleportation to the middle of nowhere</p><p></p><p> Poseidon and the Noble Five were unavailable – they were out of town hunting down some horrible demon. I figured that explained why Krynyn was our only potential employer. The usual demon who would hire us while pretending to be good was probably busy fighting the Noble Five right at that moment. But that meant we had to find someone else to make a teleportation circle for us to travel the nearly 125 miles to Krynyn’s lands, which lay almost exactly halfway between Cauldron and Bellanon, in lands that were seldom traveled by anyone. </p><p> Poseidon’s assistant Gwygwyn led us to meet a mage at the Tip Tankard, who was apparently the backup when Poseidon was out of town. Only six souls were in the tavern when we arrived. I bought three rounds of drinks for everyone and then tipped the bartender double the price. I made sure everyone knew it was Sir Cordozo they could thank for their libations. I had to start small, having determined that it would cost me over ten thousand pieces of gold to throw a party just for the nobles at the Cusp of the Sunrise. And then I had to raise an equal amount to pay for a party for the entire city of Cauldron’s commonfolk. I’m sure a dragon’s hoard or two would do wonders toward my announcement. </p><p> Morwen secured a deal for the mage to teleport us, and no sooner had we paid then we were standing in the middle of a dirty farmer’s field in the middle of nowhere. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighteen – Dirty Farms and Cold Caves</p><p></p><p> The first farmer we met was quick to regale us with tales of the dragon he saw. I probed his mind and found that his description was accurate, as far as he remembered. It was a black dragon. The next farmer’s mind held images of a blue dragon stealing away his cow. Clearly, there was something amiss. </p><p> It did not take us long to find a cave, following the general direction every farmer said they saw the dragon fly off to. Cautiously, we approached the entrance, and went inside. </p><p> The air was cold, its walls were covered in ice. The inside of the cave was dark. Morwen downed a potion of darkvision and then scouted ahead, reporting back by mindlink all that she saw. She had little to report. </p><p> The cave was not terribly large. It was half filled with a pool of deep, near-freezing water, small chucks of ice floating on its surface. It was far colder than it should have been and the whole place, according to Krynyn, had an aura of enchantment about it. </p><p> Morwen said, “It’s cold in there – looks like the lair of a white dragon.” </p><p> “Did you kill it?” I asked. </p><p> “Not yet – it is not there.”</p><p> “Let’s say ‘hi’ and get it to come out,” Ee helpfully added. </p><p></p><p> Morwen walked out and asked if I could take her over the water. I really really really did not want to do that. It was a horribly stupid, bad, unwise idea. It was an idea only Morwen could think of. There was no way I was going to walk out in front, on top of the water no less, into the lair of one or more dragons. </p><p></p><p> Five minutes later, I was out walking on the water, Morwen on my back, wondering just how I got there and briefly searching my mind for any altered memories or mind control. Before I could come to any conclusions, my reverie was broken by the large white dragon claws that broke the surface of the water and grabbed both myself and Krynyn and started to pull us down into the water. </p><p> “I’m waiting for you to do something,” Morwen screamed helpfully from my back. </p><p> “Me too,” shouted Ee from the safety of the cave entrance.</p><p> A few heartbeats later, I was standing outside the entrance of the cave, Morwen still on my back, my mind ahead of itself in getting my body the heck out of the grasp of a dragon’s claws. Only then did I notice the almost physical presence of the dragon’s aura of fear. It was not a pleasant sensation. It reminded me of being in court with a judge who you know has already been bribed more than your client can afford to counter. </p><p> </p><p> Safely out of the cave, I turned to Morwen and said, “I told you walking on water was a bad idea.”</p><p> We stood in the entrance to the cave, dripping wet in the cold, kept warm only by the power of my mind that had engulfed my body in a protective aura against the elements. </p><p> Just as I got to the entrance, the dragon, definitely white in color, reared its head from the water and expelled its noxiously cold breath over all of us. I tried to protect my companions as best I could, but my power seemed to have no effect. We quickly exited the cave and headed back toward the farmland. </p><p> The dragon having touched me, I reached out and touched it with my mind. I asked it what it wanted. It told me, “to be left alone.” I told the dragon that was what the villagers wanted as well. But the dragon denied attacking any villagers and claimed there were no other dragons in the area. That last part, at least, proved to be true, as I would discover later. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Nineteen – Farmers testify – I have a cow</p><p></p><p> Morwen thought it would be good to question as many farmers as possible to determine what was going on, see if there was any pattern to the cow snatchings, and to learn as much as we could about the nature of the dragon or dragons. </p><p> Just to mess with the dragon’s mind, on occasion I would contact it and warn it of an impending attack (that never came). </p><p> We learned that a cow was taken about every other week and that dragons began to be spotted six months ago, though cows had disappeared before then without any clue as to how. </p><p> We eventually ended up at William Robert’s farm. He offered to let me stay in his bed for a gold piece, so I paid him two. I paid him thirty gold for a cow he offered to sell me for twenty. We left the cow outside as bait for a dragon, taking watches through the night. </p><p> My noble self spent the night in William’s bed while my companions slept outside. They came and got me for my watch. To no one’s great surprise, nothing happened during the night. </p><p> I hired William to lead the cow with us to the next farm as Ee could not get it to budge no matter how hard he pulled on the cow’s rope. </p><p> William brought the cow to the vicinity of the cave and then returned to his farm at my urging. I did not think he would stand up well against the dragon. </p><p></p><p> Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Twenty – True Sight Sees White</p><p></p><p> We camped outside the dragon’s cave. I longed for a nice, noble bed, but settled for the ground. It did not take long for the dragon to appear. Two hours past sunset, a black dragon took to the sky from the cave. Morwen woke me up just in time to see it before it vanished from view. I concentrated my mine and my vision was made true – I saw that the dragon was not truly black, but was white at heart. This wily dragon was changing its color every time it ventured forth just to confuse hapless adventurers. Fortunately, we were far from hapless. </p><p> The dragon gone, we ventured more boldly into its lair, hoping to clear it out and set a trap for its return. Krynyn cast protective magics on Ee and Morwen, keeping the cold out of their bodies, and cast a spell on all of us allowing us to breathe the water. We stepped beneath the surface and onto a ledge, exploring the inner sanctum of the dragon’s lair.</p><p> It did not take long for us to find trouble. </p><p> My vision still true, I could make out the watery forms of four elementals of water beneath the surface. They caught my companions by surprise, but not myself. I quickly sent four missiles of flame into their forms, hoping that the flames would burn them away. Unfortunately, not one of them fell. </p><p> They then moved to pound Ee and Morwen and, most distressingly, me. Instinctively, my mind grabbed my body and moved me out of the path of its slam, causing one to narrowly miss smashing me into oblivion. </p><p> Before it could take another swing at me or my companions, I sent four more missiles of fire, and this time they all dissolved. Even empty, traversing this dragon’s lair would not be easy. I wondered what lay ahead. And I fervently wished that the dragon would not now be standing just behind us.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Altalazar, post: 2990840, member: 939"] Book XI Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Sixteen – Rumors and Landlords Bellanon’s streets were full of commerce. I located no less than five different large shoppes of magic, carrying all sorts of strange and wondrous things. I found a gem that improves one’s social standing, which I just had to have. It set me back nine thousand pieces of gold. I also found some gloves to aid my writing and poise. What interested me most of all was a store were I could take items of magic I had found in my career as an ‘adventurer’ and they would hold and sell them on consignment, giving me far more gold that most shoppes in the town of Cauldron ever did. I knew I would need to raise a lot of cash to gain my rightful place as a high noble, so I placed several items I had seldom used for sale there. Strangely, while I walked the streets of Bellanon, rumors of Cauldron were the main topic of street conversation. I heard that the Noble Five would rebuild the city. Further inquiry led to the root of the rumor – they had pledged to pay a good portion of the rebuilding costs. They must have lots of ready cash for that. I need to improve my own prospects if I’m to make an impression! Morwen informed me, via mindlink, that she heard the the Last Laugh was destroyed during the eruption. Ee spoke as well, “me heard rumor new group coming to town to replace Noble Five. Me think that us.” I wondered if that could work to our advantage. Our business in the Capitol complete, we returned to the streets of Cauldron by teleportation circle. Krynyn was there waiting for us, eager for our return. He looked downright distressed. Could I not read his mind, I could easily have read his face. All was not well. “My new lands are under draconic assault!” he said. Apparently the lands the King had given him as his reward, to supply him income to support his temple, were not quite the windfall he had originally thought. “The citizens there are abandoning their farms and leaving the area because of dragons residing there. They’ve had reports of a blue, black, white, green, and even a red dragon.” That sounded serious to me. I remembered that even one dragon, of the black variety, was a tough opponent. I wondered if we could safely face five (or more)? And yet five dragons seemed unlikely, especially five different dragons of different species. Perhaps it was a marauding practitioner of illusion magic. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. Distracted by Krynyn’s outburst upon seeing us, I did not notice until we were leaving the teleportation entry point that Krynyn was now being followed by a rather large creature he called a rhinoceros. I asked if it was his new pet, and he said, “no, this is my cohort.” I decided not to probe deeper. I really did not want to probe his mind to figure out just what Krynyn wanted with a “cohort” that was a two ton animal with a large horn on its face. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Seventeen – Paid Teleportation to the middle of nowhere Poseidon and the Noble Five were unavailable – they were out of town hunting down some horrible demon. I figured that explained why Krynyn was our only potential employer. The usual demon who would hire us while pretending to be good was probably busy fighting the Noble Five right at that moment. But that meant we had to find someone else to make a teleportation circle for us to travel the nearly 125 miles to Krynyn’s lands, which lay almost exactly halfway between Cauldron and Bellanon, in lands that were seldom traveled by anyone. Poseidon’s assistant Gwygwyn led us to meet a mage at the Tip Tankard, who was apparently the backup when Poseidon was out of town. Only six souls were in the tavern when we arrived. I bought three rounds of drinks for everyone and then tipped the bartender double the price. I made sure everyone knew it was Sir Cordozo they could thank for their libations. I had to start small, having determined that it would cost me over ten thousand pieces of gold to throw a party just for the nobles at the Cusp of the Sunrise. And then I had to raise an equal amount to pay for a party for the entire city of Cauldron’s commonfolk. I’m sure a dragon’s hoard or two would do wonders toward my announcement. Morwen secured a deal for the mage to teleport us, and no sooner had we paid then we were standing in the middle of a dirty farmer’s field in the middle of nowhere. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighteen – Dirty Farms and Cold Caves The first farmer we met was quick to regale us with tales of the dragon he saw. I probed his mind and found that his description was accurate, as far as he remembered. It was a black dragon. The next farmer’s mind held images of a blue dragon stealing away his cow. Clearly, there was something amiss. It did not take us long to find a cave, following the general direction every farmer said they saw the dragon fly off to. Cautiously, we approached the entrance, and went inside. The air was cold, its walls were covered in ice. The inside of the cave was dark. Morwen downed a potion of darkvision and then scouted ahead, reporting back by mindlink all that she saw. She had little to report. The cave was not terribly large. It was half filled with a pool of deep, near-freezing water, small chucks of ice floating on its surface. It was far colder than it should have been and the whole place, according to Krynyn, had an aura of enchantment about it. Morwen said, “It’s cold in there – looks like the lair of a white dragon.” “Did you kill it?” I asked. “Not yet – it is not there.” “Let’s say ‘hi’ and get it to come out,” Ee helpfully added. Morwen walked out and asked if I could take her over the water. I really really really did not want to do that. It was a horribly stupid, bad, unwise idea. It was an idea only Morwen could think of. There was no way I was going to walk out in front, on top of the water no less, into the lair of one or more dragons. Five minutes later, I was out walking on the water, Morwen on my back, wondering just how I got there and briefly searching my mind for any altered memories or mind control. Before I could come to any conclusions, my reverie was broken by the large white dragon claws that broke the surface of the water and grabbed both myself and Krynyn and started to pull us down into the water. “I’m waiting for you to do something,” Morwen screamed helpfully from my back. “Me too,” shouted Ee from the safety of the cave entrance. A few heartbeats later, I was standing outside the entrance of the cave, Morwen still on my back, my mind ahead of itself in getting my body the heck out of the grasp of a dragon’s claws. Only then did I notice the almost physical presence of the dragon’s aura of fear. It was not a pleasant sensation. It reminded me of being in court with a judge who you know has already been bribed more than your client can afford to counter. Safely out of the cave, I turned to Morwen and said, “I told you walking on water was a bad idea.” We stood in the entrance to the cave, dripping wet in the cold, kept warm only by the power of my mind that had engulfed my body in a protective aura against the elements. Just as I got to the entrance, the dragon, definitely white in color, reared its head from the water and expelled its noxiously cold breath over all of us. I tried to protect my companions as best I could, but my power seemed to have no effect. We quickly exited the cave and headed back toward the farmland. The dragon having touched me, I reached out and touched it with my mind. I asked it what it wanted. It told me, “to be left alone.” I told the dragon that was what the villagers wanted as well. But the dragon denied attacking any villagers and claimed there were no other dragons in the area. That last part, at least, proved to be true, as I would discover later. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Nineteen – Farmers testify – I have a cow Morwen thought it would be good to question as many farmers as possible to determine what was going on, see if there was any pattern to the cow snatchings, and to learn as much as we could about the nature of the dragon or dragons. Just to mess with the dragon’s mind, on occasion I would contact it and warn it of an impending attack (that never came). We learned that a cow was taken about every other week and that dragons began to be spotted six months ago, though cows had disappeared before then without any clue as to how. We eventually ended up at William Robert’s farm. He offered to let me stay in his bed for a gold piece, so I paid him two. I paid him thirty gold for a cow he offered to sell me for twenty. We left the cow outside as bait for a dragon, taking watches through the night. My noble self spent the night in William’s bed while my companions slept outside. They came and got me for my watch. To no one’s great surprise, nothing happened during the night. I hired William to lead the cow with us to the next farm as Ee could not get it to budge no matter how hard he pulled on the cow’s rope. William brought the cow to the vicinity of the cave and then returned to his farm at my urging. I did not think he would stand up well against the dragon. Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Twenty – True Sight Sees White We camped outside the dragon’s cave. I longed for a nice, noble bed, but settled for the ground. It did not take long for the dragon to appear. Two hours past sunset, a black dragon took to the sky from the cave. Morwen woke me up just in time to see it before it vanished from view. I concentrated my mine and my vision was made true – I saw that the dragon was not truly black, but was white at heart. This wily dragon was changing its color every time it ventured forth just to confuse hapless adventurers. Fortunately, we were far from hapless. The dragon gone, we ventured more boldly into its lair, hoping to clear it out and set a trap for its return. Krynyn cast protective magics on Ee and Morwen, keeping the cold out of their bodies, and cast a spell on all of us allowing us to breathe the water. We stepped beneath the surface and onto a ledge, exploring the inner sanctum of the dragon’s lair. It did not take long for us to find trouble. My vision still true, I could make out the watery forms of four elementals of water beneath the surface. They caught my companions by surprise, but not myself. I quickly sent four missiles of flame into their forms, hoping that the flames would burn them away. Unfortunately, not one of them fell. They then moved to pound Ee and Morwen and, most distressingly, me. Instinctively, my mind grabbed my body and moved me out of the path of its slam, causing one to narrowly miss smashing me into oblivion. Before it could take another swing at me or my companions, I sent four more missiles of fire, and this time they all dissolved. Even empty, traversing this dragon’s lair would not be easy. I wondered what lay ahead. And I fervently wished that the dragon would not now be standing just behind us. [/QUOTE]
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