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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 497365" data-attributes="member: 5675">Jared Blackspawn’s JournalPart 9----------------------------------Highharvestide - We had camped last night a few hours travel from the lair, so that with an early start we could reach the lair just after Gran'rath had left it. As we were about to set off, our camp was entered by a dirty woman and her hulking bear companion. She introduced herself as Angharad Bearfriend, and after introduction were over she announced that she shares our interest in slaying the young dragon, though her motivation is different. She claims (probably rightly so), that the local ecosystem cannot support two such active and powerful predators. She cast a few spells designed to lessen the severity of fire upon several of us and Taeghan offered to do similar but had just one spell to use for this, and it could go to either Stedd or myself. I felt ill at ease with the idea of Corellon Larethian protecting me, so I let Stedd receive the dubious blessing. We set off and climbed up the rocky slope towards the lair. Gran'rath Tendathaloth then launched himself out to hunt and a wave of cold terror swept over me, dropping me to my knees in fright. I was far from the worst affected though, I could hear one of the others whimpering behind me. Of all of us only Rand seemed completely unaffected by the dragon fear, perhaps in part due to the rumours that sorcerors carry the taint of draconic blood in their veins. Once we had recovered our wits we climbed up the rest of the way to the lair entrance. Braddoc noticed that the entrance had been weakened so that it could be easily collapsed. Noting this, we headed into a vast tunnel leading into the interior of the mountain, coming across an area of tunnel where the floor was covered in metal that had been melted to form a layer, though it was now cold and set hard. Braddoc tried to investigate this feature with the aid of a heavy rock, rolling it before him, and fell into a cunning pit trap in the midst of it. We then hauled him out with a rope and the aid of the bear to pull it. Making our way around the edge of the pit we heard an ominous voice boom out (a magical enchantment it turned out), warning us to leave or die. We ignored it and a great bolt of lightning fired at us. Stedd and I avoided it easily but it blasted Braddoc and Tanus, both then needing substantial healing from Angharad. I take her to be a local druid given her spells and general appearance. The bolt done, we found ourselves in a large cave, with two tunnel leading from it, though one was completely blocked by a massive wall of fire. Rand detected numerous magic sources in the cave, and then Braddoc spotted a dwarven corpse that had been used for flame breath target practice, no doubt by the infant dragon. He went to investigate, finding a mithril helmet that belonged to his brother (who presumably is the extra crispy dwarf), and we were then set upon by three fire creatures of some sort, presumably elemental in nature that burst out of the wall of fire. We made short work of these, I finished off two of them myself. Tanus took the wand that was embedded in a cave wall, which the lightning bolt had shot from, and there was a suit of studded leather armour on the dwarf corpse that had somehow survived the roasting, possibly magical in nature to withstand such heat. We next had to negotiate an area of the tunnel affected by and Evard's Black Tentacles spell which grabbed me and then Tanus as he and Stedd did their best to free me. We resolved the problem by Rand annihilating the area with the use of one of his globes from his necklace of missiles. Proceeding hastily along the tunnel, we then came across two large runes, one on each opposite wall of the tunnel, facing each other. Stedd tumbled straight through and the runes flashed with black lightning, the tunnel floor between them erupting as skeletons and zombies burst forth from the earth, forming a wall of the undead separating us from our monk. I barrelled into them in a concerted effort to cut my way through to my usual fighting partner. The others then joined me. Across the tunnel I could just make out the undead surround Stedd. Angharad and Braddoc fought to either side of me as we desperately battled to reach Stedd before the press of numbers overwhelmed him. And then from behind me Taeghan chanted holy words and the undead just exploded, the skeletons detonating into bony shards, the zombies stumbling off, driven back by the fervour of his piety. Though I loathe his god, I find myself envying the elf's closeness to his deity. Chasing after the zombies we encountered the thick webbing they had stumbled into. Stedd promptly set fire to the webbing, burning it and the zombies both, revealing an ingenious trap that the webing would have activated if we had gotten stuck in it. We went past this now toothless trap and entered a sizeable cavern. Something then fired off a magical attack on Braddoc and since I couldn't see what, I decided to level the playing field (a quaint human expression, having something to do with a concept of theirs called sportsmanship) and slipped into the shadows, moving further into the cave, whereupon my superior nightvision allowed me to see the infant dragon, clinging to a wall of the cave some 30' up, at the far end of the cavern. I watched as my companions too moved into the cave, spreading out to lessen the effects of the monsters formidable breath weapon. I saw the dragon drop down to the cave floor, its youthful impetuosity causing it to give up its height advantage, and then it inhaled... and exhaled molten fire at most of the party missing only Stedd, Rand, myself and Angharad's bear companion. While Braddoc took little damage and Tanus nimbly avoided the fire entirely, both Taeghan and Angharad were greviously burned, though neither dropped from their wounds. Rand launched volleys of his electrical orbs as both Braddoc and myself charged it. My strike had no effect, my blade clattering off the creatures thick scales, but Braddoc's axe ripped open a gaping wound, parting the scales across the infant's forequarters, the dragon roaring in pain. We all piled into it, surrounding the great reptile and keeping it pinned against the cave wall, denying it the effective use of its tail as a weapon. Though I had little overall effect I claim the glory, as mine was the blow that felled the beast, my blade sinking deep into its body to steal away its young life. I am a dragonslayer! We then hurriedly grabbed what we could of the hoard, gold coins, some gems and a couple items, and butrchered the body for the parts that Darius needs and then we ran. As we reached the treeline halfway down the mountain slope, and just after Rand had cast the spells to cleanse us of the smell of our deeds, Gran'rath returned to the lair, and we ran like hell further into the forest canopy. We heard the parent dragons roars of anguish and and anger as he discovered what we had done and began heading back out of his lair to seek our doom. Rand then flung his remaining two missile globes from his necklace and detonated them on the weakened cave entrance, collapsing it on the wyrm as he emerged, bringing hundreds of tonnes of rock crashing down to seal him inside his lair. We continued heading away as fast as we could, Angharad left our company in the mid afternoon to head off on her own route, doubtless she knows of many good places to hide in this area. I have had better Highharvestide festivals that is for sure! Marpenoth 1st-3rd - We continued heading back towards Dagger Falls at the best speed we could manage, we did not stop to hunt or eat, relying on trail rations that we ate on the move. We stopped only to sleep and then for just five or six hours a night. We saw no sign of Gran'rath during this time, and for that we are extremely thankful. Similarly nothing else bothered our hurried trek either. Marpenoth 4th - We arrived back in Dagger Falls in the mid morning and made straight for the Thayan enclave. We handed over the bag of draconic body parts to Darius and recieved our enchanted items as payment. We then paid for numerous items that we were carrying to be identified that we might know what to do with them. Darius fearfully created another scrying bowl to check on Gran'rath. the great beast lives and detected us watching him, roaring out a promise to exact revenge upon us... not what I needed in my life. Leaving the enclave we headed across town back to our Inn where we divvied up the magical loot. for once I did well out of this, claiming the enchanted studded leather and a potion of healing as my share. And then Tanus opened his mouth and mentioned us having killed a dragon... right in the middle of the Inn's common room at lunchtime! Great, we are so dead. His idiocy knows no bounds. That rumour will be all over town by morning and we are known in this area. The dragon will have no problem tracking us down once he has broken out of his lair, and then exacting his promised revenge upon us all. Also when the local thieves learn that we knocked off a dragon, they will suppose it was Gran'rath, as the infant was not general knowledge and the big dragon's daily routine has stopped for the past few days as he is trapped in his lair, and his absence from the noon skies, combined with the rumour of us having slain a dragon will draw every cutpurse and burglar in this grimy town down upon us, eager to claim the loot we must have taken from the dragon's hoard. In truth we grabbed about a thousand gold coins worth, and spent a good chunk of that paying Darius to use his spells on the magical items we have. I paid for a bath to be brought up to my room, as I badly needed to wash the scent of the trail and dragons blood also from my body. I go now to bed, as I am sorely in need of a nights rest in a warm soft bed.</blockquote>

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