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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1537553" data-attributes="member: 9626">Death From AboveIt was already too late to run; the dragons were coming in fast.  Shedell looked at the two dragons.  One was red and looked slightly younger than the second, which was blue.  She quickly turned to the party and said,  “I’ll lure one of them away.  You try to deal with the other.”  She then quickly took flight, and veered off from the party’s current position.  As she hoped, the blue focused on her, leaving the red to the party.As the dragons neared, the red roared to the party, “Nothing personal, but we have to kill you.”  This was a bit confusing to most of the group, but they had more important things to worry about for now.Quercus took flight, much like his sister did, but not before he looked back at the party and yelled, “Get the horses and the girl out of here!”  He then made a beeline for the dragon, but couldn’t reach him just yet. Tal followed Quercus’ directions.  He started to move the noncombatants to safety, but while he did so, he began to sing of the party’s earlier heroic exploits and the odds they went up against, only to survive each time.  This bolstered their courage, a needed thing in a fight like this.  Tsine meanwhile, attacked the monster using one of his newer spells, a torrent of crushing ice.  The red dragon roared with frustration, and to Seldzar and Rudyard, it sounded like there was a second voice that screamed in pain, but they didn’t notice who made the noise.  Seldzar tried to fire on the dragon, and scored one good shot on the creature, but it barely got past its naturally regenerative skin.  Finally, it was the dragons’ turns.  The red flew in close, and attacked Quercus with a vicious bite while passing by.  He then did a flip in mid-air, and began to close for a second attack.  Meanwhile, the blue flew towards Shedell, and as he drew closer, he exhaled a bolt of electricity.  Of course, Shedell’s angelic blood dampened the effect completely, and she was unscathed by the attack.  Now that the red was within range, Rudyard took off on his new mount, and charged past the dragon, while using his training and momentum to deliver a telling blow.  Robin was content to fire at the creature from below, while Dane used his new magical wings to fly up behind the dragon, and slash at its back.  His enhanced blade and muscles proved their worth already, as the dragon screamed in fury when a deep red gash formed.  However, Dane also noticed something else as he closed on the dragon.  It had a passenger; an orc with one of those damned gun-thingies.  The rider pointed the gun at Quercus, and the bullet screamed as it easily pierced his armor and burrowed into his skin.  The scream hit immediately after, buffeting the hero with an explosive blast of noise.Shedell and the blue, meanwhile, were finally ready to fight.  Shedell was just so fast and well armored that even the vicious dragon could barely penetrate.  However, it did get a few lucky hits, giving Shedell a number of wounds that tarnished her perfect armor with bloody red streaks.  Shedell returned the favor with her axe, while taking advantage of her improved ability to maneuver in the air.  The fight was almost over a few seconds later, when she was able to distract the dragon with a feint, and then plunged the heavy blade of the axe deep in the monster’s neck.Back at the party, the dragon and orc were suddenly shocked by the ferocity and mobility of their enemy.  Quercus, Rudyard, and Dane circled around the creature, often double-teaming it from both sides at once to keep the dragon distracted, while Robin and Seldzar hammered it with arrows, and Tal and Tsine attacked it with lightning blasts, volleys of magic, and orbs of acid.  The dragon, however, made sure each hit was hard-won, especially when he released a jet of flame at Dane and Rudyard, with Tsine unfortunately at the edge of the blast back on the ground.  Dane was able to avoid the worst, and got away with only minor burns, but Rudyard and his mount were caught in the worst of the jet.  He quickly landed his mount, which was emitting a nauseating odor of cooked meat and could barely support them.  Tsine was even worse off.  The blast caught him right in the face, frying all the hair off of his head, and he screamed with pain and collapsed, unable to bear it.  Tal redirected his focus on helping the unfortunate mage.  Meanwhile, the orc gunner had shot Dane and Quercus repeatedly with hollow rounds, which gave them especially nasty wounds that continued to bleed heavily.  Finally, Quercus finished the evil orc with one perfect slash with his gigantic sword, while a final volley of arrows by Robin caught the creature in the eyes and mouth.  One arrow pierced the creature’s brain, and it fell to the ground with a sickening thud.  Any chance that it was still alive quickly ended when the orc’s weaponry exploded, sending bits of the dragon’s hide flying outwards for hundreds of yards.Meanwhile, the fight between Shedell and the blue dragon eventually became grounded, as the dragon tried to rely on his multiple attacks to get through the his enemy’s armor.  Seldzar took advantage of this chance to sneak in behind the creature, and tried to deal it a final punishing blow in a vital organ.  However, his blade couldn’t get past the creature’s hide, and seeing that he now had a much softer-looking target, the dragon shifted its focus on the unfortunate drow.  One series of brutal attacks later, he was bleeding on the ground, and barely twitching.  Rudyard, however, saw an opportunity to avenge his dying friends and regain his honor, and urged his mount to make one final attack.  He rode up on the dragon, and plunged his sword right down the creature’s throat, ending its miserable life.Quercus and Shedell focused on healing, while the others discussed what the dragon could have meant earlier.  “What did it mean nothing personal?  A dragon wouldn’t even feel the need to apologize to attack an enemy of the Orc Empire!” Tsine mused.Tal gave him a quick glare to indicate he didn’t appreciate the implication that all dragons served the Orc Empire, and commented, “Maybe they were forced to attack us.  After all, this is too far into undead territory to expect patrols of this strength, and if they had a specific mission here, they wouldn’t have wasted their time on us.  But who could be powerful enough to control dragons?”  They all looked at each other, afraid to say what their first thought was.  Is Bas or one of her servants this strong already?The rest of the day passed uneventfully.  The bodies were looted, stripped, and burned, and the stakes were established as etiquette required.  The party rested for another night, though this one was even scarier than the last.  The total absence of any trees or other cover made them feel very isolated and exposed, especially after the last fight, and a night of total silence, with no birds, bugs or other animals to be heard, was enough to drive any trained adventurer crazy.  The next morning wasn’t any better, as midway through breakfast, Shedell suddenly sat up.  “She’s coming!  I have to go RIGHT NOW!” she screamed.  She finishes putting on her armor as quickly as possible, and then took off.  Quercus made one last attempt to encourage her to stay with them, and fight her together hear and now, but she acted like she barely heard him.  Within a few minutes, she flew off over the horizon.  Quercus had to briefly fight the urge to chase after her, but he realized this probably was for the best.  The only way to defeat a threat like the Lady of Blood was with a surgical strike, not when her entire army was following her.The third day was about to pass out of True Light, as the sun began to enter the domain of the second moon, when trouble struck again from above.  A massive bird, larger than any the party has ever seen before, was flying straight at them with a hungry look.  Rudyard also noticed it had a strange look in its eye, but it couldn’t tell any more from here.  He and Dane began to fire at the creature as it flew towards them, but the distance was initially too great for them, as only a few arrows reached the creature.  Tsine, meanwhile, used a bolt of lightning, but the creature avoided most of the blast, and was only singed a little in the wings.  Finally, the creature reached the party, and soon everyone could determine what Rudyard noticed earlier.  The creature’s eyes were not normal by any means.  They were far larger than even its massive body would need, and they appeared to be mostly made of some crusty, rock-like material.  Even worse, they were crawling with bugs!  The creature merely gave Tsine a look, and a swarm of insects flew out of the eyes, and surrounded him, stinging him and making future spellcasting far more difficult.  Tal guessed that this must be some strange new undead, and used his trademark anti-undead spell on the creature.  Sadly, he guessed wrong, as the creature, horrible as it was, still lived.  Seldzar, Robin, and even Quercus joined in the missile barrage, since nobody wanted to get near the giant monster.  But even the five of them could not drop the massive beast.  Tsine, no longer able to cast spells, considered switching to arrows himself, but he had prepared a spell that let him fly shortly before the bird reached them, and decided it would be silly to waste it.  He drew his sword and charged the creature!A few seconds later, he realized this was probably a mistake, as the creature effortlessly caught him in one of its massive claws, and then began to fly away, having earned what it thought was enough of a meal for one day.  However, to try and discourage the other members of the herd from bothering it, it turned and squinted at Dane as it flew away and started to crush the life out of its meal.  As it squinted at Dane, a volley of insects, which glowed with eldritch energy, flew out of its eyes and homed in on him like magical missiles.  Fortunately, he had purchased a magic item earlier in Methosilang that deflected these types of missiles, and he survived unharmed.  Desperate to save their friend before it was too late, Tal began firing magical attacks while Seldzar and Robin pressed the ranged attacks, and Quercus finally ended the fight with one aerial charge, where he drove his blade into the creature’s abdomen, spilling blood guts and causing the creature to plummet in a fatal free-fall.  Tsine was saved, if you don’t count the pain of the fall and being crushed by a giant bird when he fell in the first place.  Well, at least he was alive, which most of the party though was enough for them to thoroughly chew him out and mock him for flying right into the claw of a giant bird.OOC Notes:  The dragon’s quick death was a clear indication that the party was a little over-equipped right now.  Though it was only a CR 9 (in 3.0, though, so probably CR 10 by now,) so dragon exemptions or not, 7 9th level characters should have dealt with it without too much trouble.  The bird was a Hive Bird, another unique monster I created out of a video game creature I though up.  As always, I’d be happy to post the stats for it if anyone is at all interested.  And Tsine’s actions in that fight were not embellished at all; that really happened as I described.  Hilariously, the exact same thing happened with another character when I tossed an advanced Hive Bird their way over a year of gaming later!</blockquote>

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