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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9429340" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 59: DEMONS AND DRAGONSPC Roster:  Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15NPC Roster: Orchid, elf druid 15Game Session Date: 24 July 2024 - - -The wounded dragon flew haphazardly through the air, at nowhere near its top speed - it was quite obviously doing everything it could to remain in the air, with an arrow sticking out its left eye socket.  Several hundred feet behind it, keeping pace, Harlan sat astride his celestial pegasus Nova and shadowed its movements, ensuring they kept to its blind side and far enough back there was little chance of the dragon noticing them.Harlan judged they'd flown seven miles or so away from the logging camp where the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken out a band of five frost giants and given the dragon enough of a beating that it opted to flee to safety rather than continue on in such a lopsided fight.  The half-elf still had contact with the other heroes over the Rary's telepathic bond spell Alistair had cast upon the five of them and the ranger Purly who had led them to the site where they met the advancing foes in combat.  As he and Nova followed their prey, he gave a running commentary to his friends, so they'd be able to follow as best as they could on horseback after severing the heads of the slain frost giants and dumping them into the extradimensional dwelling as proof of their deaths.  That way, Harlan knew, he and Nova would have less of a distance to backtrack once the dragon made its lair known to them.But now the dragon was lowering in elevation - was it getting weaker, or about to land to enter its lair?  Harlan spurred Nova on to full speed, shortening the distance between them and their prey.  Sure enough, he could see a dark cave opening at the bottom of a glacier just ahead; it looked like the dragon was about to enter its lair, and the paladin didn't want to take the chance it might have allies inside who could heal it back up before the rest of the TPA could join him and Nova.  So he had Nova dive straight at the dragon, who was slowing to a halt as it dropped to the snow-covered ground.  Nova's front hooves practically collided with the back of the dragon's head as Harlan leaned over to the side of his aerial mount and brought his holy flaming burst longsword cutting deep into the dragon's back, just to the side of one weathered wing, his blade empowered by the smiting energy of Pelor.  The joint attacks were enough to cause the dragon to plummet the rest of the way to the snowy ground, staining the area around its cooling corpse with the red of its flowing blood.  <We got it!> Harlan advised the others over the mental link.  <It's dead, right outside the cave mouth it was about to enter.><We're on the move,> Orchid replied back.  <We should catch up to you shortly.><We'll head back and lead you to the lair,> Harlan advised.  <No need for us to be spotted in the vicinty - let anyone inside the lair wonder what happened if they find the dragon's corpse before our arrival.>  It didn't take Nova too long to circle back and catch back up to the others, then drop down to the ground and ride alongside them back to the dragon's presumed lair in the glacier.When everyone arrived, Chaevaris, atop her carpet of flying was as invisible as her magic rug.  The horses were stopped a good 100 feet away or so, with Purly once again volunteering to stay behind and watch the mounts while the heroes entered the ice cave.  That seemed like a reasonable idea, and Orchid told her timber wolf animal companion Shushitan - back to his normal size now that the animal growth spell had run its course - to stay with Purly and help guard the horses and pony.  Harlan climbed down from Nova's back and had him stay behind as well, as he was much more useful as an aerial scout, flying about in circles in the air above and keeping a wary eye out for approaching enemies, than he would be crawling around inside an icy cave network inside the glacier.  Carruthers was also released from the extradimensional dwelling and placed on guard duty, protecting Purly and the mounts.The cave opening ahead looked to be about 35 feet wide, shaped rather like an elongated eye, about 15 feet high at its highest point in the middle.  Chaevaris lowered her flying carpet and moved slowly forward, opting not to step foot inside unless necessary, for the carpet could be made to hover in place and made a much sturdier shooting platform than the harness and immovable rod system she'd used in the past.  She had an arrow out and notched, ready to shoot, but so far she saw mothing but darkness in the cave ahead.Orchid stepped forward towards the cave opening, casting a new spell for her as she did so: fire seeds, infusing an acorn from a pouch at her hip with the explosive power of a fireball spell.  Harlan was right there beside her, concentrating on detecting any evil emanations coming from the cave.  He felt instinctively that there was evil ahead - specifically, in the back of the entry cavern, but he was unable to see anything untoward by the starlight shining in from outside.  But he warned the others he was picking up an aura of evil from something unseen inside.  <Let's hope it's not the dead dragon's mother,> Alistair said, <although it doesn't look like the dragon's corpse has been disturbed out here.  There's a good chance nobody inside has yet noticed.>  The sorcerer cast another haste spell on the group, the original one having long since expired.Ageratum was also invisible, courtesy of her magic bracelet, and the air walk spell Orchid had cast on her earlier was still in effect.  She had to admit, running through the very air was something she could get used to on a regular basis - it was so much easier to remain quiet than moving about on the ground!<There!> called Chaevaris over the link.  <Over on the left, by the opening to the next cave over - some sort of frog or toad!>  Harlan confirmed that was where the aura of evil was concentrated, leaving Orchid to puzzle about how a toad could possibly be evil.  <Evil wizard's familiar, maybe?> suggested the archer.  But since this wasn't a giant toad or anything, merely a white-skinned toad who'd easily fit into the palm of her hand, she deemed it not much of a threat.  <Worst thing it might be able to do is to warn its master that we're approaching,> she guessed.  <We'd best assume anyone inside already knows we're here.>Orchid responded by casting a mass bear's endurance spell on the group, to better enable them to stay tough in combat, if further combat was likely to be imminent.  Harlan followed with a bless spell, while eyeing the toad he finally picked out from against the icy background - it was sitting in a depression, with just the top of its head peeking out at them.  But he shared Chaevaris's assessment that it was unlikely the toad would be able to do them much harm. Alistair advised his familiar, and Ambrose flew off to nestle in Talkatcha's lengthy mane, as a means of staying warm in the winter cold.  Then the sorcerer cast a shield spell on himself while there was no immediate battle arresting his attention.  That done, he stepped into the entry cave behind the others and looked about for this "icy toad" the others were making such a fuss over.  Alistair figured a magic missile spell or two would be more than enough to take out a measly toad.But he didn't get the chance - not right away, in any case.  Unseen by any of the others, Ageratum, still invisible, ran across the entry cave and down a set of natural steps in the ice to the larger cavern to the west.  Another passageway headed back north from this second cavern, and at the end of that corridor stood two male frost giants before a set of doors, quite apparently on guard detail - and it was also quite apparent that while they couldn't see any of the heroes just yet (especially invisible halflings!), they were alerted of possible imminent combat, for they held their greataxes at the ready, as if eager to take on any intruders foolish enough to head their way.  Ageratum warned the others over the telepathic link.Orchid went down the steps, following Ageratum's path quite unwittingly, for she had no idea of the halfling's current location.  But she ducked her head around the corner, saw the frost giants, and cast a summon swarm spell that deposited thousands of crawling spiders more than halfway down the tunnel.  Knowing the spiders would immediately head towards the nearest potential enemy, she smiled at the thought the giants would be fulfilling that particular role - let their greataxes try to deal with that many individual foes at once!  Sure enough, the spiders all scrambled forward, making decent speed over the slick ice (since many of them were climbing over the bodies of those beneath them).What none of the heroes realized was that the slain dragon's mate was currently perched upon the ceiling of the larger cavern, and she saw Orchid enter the chamber and cast her spell.  She released her ceiling perch, spun around during the fall to the ground like a cat, and landed on all four limbs, her long neck pointed down the corridor where the frost giants were about to face the hungry spiders.  She released a gout of frost, which slew the spiders - every last one of them - without harming a hair on the beards of the giants, who were immune to the reptile's freezing breath weapon.  Orchid was untouched off to her right, but the dragon figured she could take care of the elf in a moment.  What she didn't figure was there being an invisible halfling standing in the air right by her neck - although she found that out quick enough when Ageratum's flashing blade cut a deep gash in the side of her neck, popping back into visibility as she did so.  <Little help here!> she called to the others.The dragon roared its displeasure at the unexpected attack, and Ageratum felt the blood in her veins seemingly turn to ice.  Chaevaris felt a chill go down her spine as well, although Orchid was able to overcome the dragon's frightful presence, as did Harlan and Alistair.  The paladin ran forward, Starblade out and ready to attack.  Alistair, no longer the least bit worried about any potential threat that might be posed by the frost-colored toad, cast a delayed blast fireball into the cavern behind the dragon, foregoing any delay at all.  The explosion of flames engulfed the dragon's left side, but Ageratum was shielded by the dragon's bulk and Orchid was too far away to be affected.Ageratum slapped her bracelet and slipped back into invisibility, running around to the other side of the dragon, where she wouldn't know where to find the little halfling.  The dragon snapped at her in passing but missed, not knowing the speed by which a frightened halfling could move when under the effects of a haste spell and with adrenaline coursing through her system thanks to the severe fright she'd gotten by hearing the dragon's roar that close up.  But, swallowing down her fear, Ageratum faced the dragon, ready to try to attack it from behind, where she hopefully wouldn't be expecting it.The two frost giants abandoned their posts in front of the doors, running forward to engage the enemy now that they'd made their presence known.  One raced past Harlan, not even seeing the paladin around the corner as his gaze focused on Orchid, and the paladin's sword thrust deep into the giant's side in passing, its flaming blade causing the giant no small amount of pain.  Then the double doors opened and another pair of frost giants came running down the tunnel behind the first two.Chaevaris, perched invisibly on her invisible carpet of flying (which hung motionless in the air), took careful aim at the dragon and shot at its right eye, thinking to make a mirror image of the reptile's mate whose corpse lay just outside.  But while the arrow hit the dragon's skull and protruded like a wayward horn, she missed actually hitting the eye by a few scant inches.  Orchid, in the meantime, backed up and tossed her acorn at the dragon, hitting her on the right side of her torso, just below the wing, and causing a massive fireball that made the dragon instantly forget about any pain she felt from the archer's arrow.  The blast also encompassed the first two frost giants, neither of which appreciated the blast of flames.Perhaps motivated by panic - this was, after all, her primary lair and it was currently enhanced by half a dozen frost giant guards; they shouldn't be suffering such a quick and humiliating defeat by mere humans and elves! - the dragon blew out another blast of frost, this one straight down onto the ground before her.  This was not another blast of her draconic breath weapon, though, but rather a freezing fog effect, much like a solid fog spell but with the added advantage of coating everything it touched in a layer of slippery ice, to which she was herself immune.  With any luck, this would pin these intruders in place (for the cloud encompassed Orchid and Harlan, and was large enough to block most of the passageway between the entry cavern and her larger lair at the bottom of the natural ice steps, although there was a slight gap along the northern side, not quite large enough for a person to slip through, but enough to see through).  Hopefully she and the first two frost giants, who were all trapped inside the freezing fog, could make quick work of the druidess and the paladin before moving on to finding that irritating halfling and whoever was casting fiery spells and arrows from the entry cavern.From outside the area of effect, Ageratum was disappointed to see the freezing fog effect also made it all but impossible to see inside the hemisphere, as she found out when stabbing into the half-globe of shimmering flakes at the location she thought the dragon's tail was - but missed completely.  But Harlan, fully inside, was close enough to one of the frost giants to be able to make out his exact location without difficulty, and he brought his flaming sword to good use, striking and singeing him in blow after blow.  Alistair positioned himself to where he could see through the gap and fired off another delayed blast fireball (without the delay - the sorcerer had yet to find a reason to hold off on the potential instantaneous aspect of the spell) along the northern part of the freezing fog area of effect, where he knew the two frost giants had been standing; he just hoped he'd kept Harlan out of the exploding sphere of flames.  The blast was enough to slay one of the two giants outright, while burning up the other one fairly severely and dealing damage to the dragon as well.Ageratum swung her blade again inside the unseen interior of the murky globe, missing the dragon yet again.  As did the second frost giant as it moved up to attack Harlan, almost slipping as he did so.  The paladin was able to raise his shield above his head and sidestep the incoming attack.  Behind him, the third frost giant took the plunge inside the freezing fog, surprised at the resistance the floating snowflakes were giving him.  The fourth giant waited his turn, knowing there was limited room in the narrow passageway.But Chaevaris saw the third giant enter the fog and shot him with a flurry of four rapid-fire arrows as he did so.  He roared in pain at the unexpected attack, for he had no idea there was an archer around the corner from the passageway he'd taken.  Orchid, unsure of the dragon's exact location, cast a summon nature's ally spell that brought a greater fire elemental into the cavern, to the west of the freezing fog, with directions to reach in and throttle any dragons found inside.  The elemental did as commanded, but its first attempts to locate the dragon failed.And then, to Ageratum's continued dismay, a secret passageway opened - it was a door made of solid ice, which hinged open behind her along the western wall - and another pair of frost giants entered the dragon's lair cavern, the male swinging his greataxe at her before she could react.  He hit her solidly in the back, but fortunately most of the attack was absorbed by the stoneskin spell she still had up from her previous battle with the frost giant raiding party back at the logging camp.Inside the freezing fog, the dragon cast a spell of some sort, but then the fire elemental found her location and pummeled her with massive fists like flaming boulders.  The reptile dropped dead to the icy floor, no longer a threat.  At the same time, Harlan moved cautiously forward, careful not to slip, and stabbed up at the second frost giant, sinking his flaming blade deep into his belly.  When he pulled his sword back out, the giant vomited blood and fell forward, and it was all the half-elf could to to stay on his feet as he scrambled away at the best speed the freezing fog would allow.Another "instant" (no delay) delayed blast fireball from Alistair exploded into the cloud, killing the last of the frost giants inside the freezing fog and burning the one standing just outside it to the north.  He growled in irritation and entered the fog, getting clocked by the greater fire elemental as he did so.Ageratum used a similar tactic, plucking a bead from her necklace of fireballs and tossing it at the long-bearded frost giant jarl who had just attacked her from behind, the bead exploding into a smaller burst of fire that still did more damage to the jarl than he liked.  His wife, having just stepped through the hidden door behind him, cast an unholy blight spell into the freezing fog, knowing full well any of her allies would be unharmed.  Orchid and Harlan both felt the effects but were able to ignore the majority of them, feeling a mere distaste rather than an overwhelming nausea, as had been intended.Chaevaris targeted the last frost giant to enter the cloud of freezing fog before his silhouette became indistinct, killing him with multiple shots to the head.  Orchid backed further up, pulling another acorn from her pouch and casting a second fire seeds spell upon it.  She kept the acorn in her hand, ready to throw, but she wanted to make sure she had a good target before doing so.Having heard the sounds of combat behind it, the greater fire elemental whirled around and saw the frost giant jarl and his cleric wife.  It lunged at the jarl before hitting an invisible barrier - the jarl had a magic circle against good spell active upon him, which prevented the elemental - a summoned creature - from being able to make contact.  Its hiss of anger sounded like a hundred tea kettles boiling all at once.  Grinning at the elemental's impotence, he turned his back on it and continued his attacks on the air walking halfling, hitting Ageratum again with his greataxe (which again dealt her much less damage than if she'd not had a stoneskin spell active to lessen the severity of the blows against her).Harlan, finding himself without any enemies nearby, struggled to push his way through the freezing fog, but it was irritatingly slow going.  He headed west, where he could hear the sounds of battle as Ageratum fought off the frost giant jarl singlehandedly (despite the fire elemental's best efforts).<Jump on up!> Chaevaris said over the link as she waved Alistair up onto her carpet of flying.  The sorcerer clambered aboard, and then she maneuvered it so they could see through the gap to the far side of the larger cavern.  <Think you can teleport us over there?> the archer asked.<Just watch me, Elfy!> declared Alistair, casting a dimension door spell that sent them not only into the western part of the dragon's lair, but up towards the ceiling, and behind the jarl and his wife.  Ageratum slapped her bracelet and faded back out of view, running away from the jarl and over by his wife.  Seeing the halfling headed her way as she faded into invisibility, the giantess moved over closer to her husband for safety.  But Ageratum had already closed the gap - the giants had failed to account for her being hasted - and her short sword sliced a line of blood along the giantess's blue-skinned arm.  The magic of her blade also siphoned off a bit of the giantess's strength, leaving her momentarily light-headed, as if she'd stood up too fast after sitting for too long.Chaevaris, on her aerial perch, shot an arrow down at the giantess' stomach, piercing her belly and causing her to become nauseated.  Inside the freezing fog globe, Harlan and Orchid both pressed on, moving slowly to their friends' aid.  The greater fire elemental slid sideways along the north wall, getting as close as she could while being held back by the magic circle against good barrier.  Right now, the cleric was well within the confines of her husband's spell's magical protection, but that could easily change moment to moment.The jarl turned to his wife and said something in the Giant language., which none of the heroes spoke, but Ageratum's magical helmet allowed her to understand exactly what was said: "Meet me at the altar."  The cleric turned to go back through the hidden door, the way she'd come.  Then the jarl dashed forward at full speed into the freezing fog cloud, unaffected by the spell effect's slowing efforts or general slipperiness.  (He'd had his wife cast a freedom of movement spell upon him earlier.)  The jarl met up with a startled Harlan, who barely had enough time to raise his shield against the giant's incoming greataxe blow.  But with the giant right there, Harlan was able to attack him right back in rapid succession, his first two attacks hitting their mark.  Alistair cast another delayed blast fireball that encompassed both frost giants, and while he couldn't see how the jarl fared against his spell, he could see the giantess had shielded herself with a protection from fire spell, for the effects were not at all as he had hoped.But then Ageratum was on the cleric, a frenzied halfling stabbing out with a short sword in each hand.  Unable to fend off a flurry of so many blows in rapid succession, the giantess found herself bleeding from half a dozen wounds.  She quickly retreated to the secret door, seeking to flee from these fiends and meet her husband back where he'd said, by the altar to Kostchtchie, the demon lord they both worshiped.  Ageratum struck her a final time as she passed by, just to add salt to the wounds.But Chaevaris was in hot pursuit, flying her carpet after the fleeing cleric.  They went down a diagonal tunnel that the archer assumed would end up in a room on the other side of the double doors the first pair of frost giants had been guarding.  She fired an arrow at the back of the frost giantess's head, striking a glancing blow that looked like it took off part of a dainty ear.  Then Alistair channeled a chain lightning spell through his metamagic rod, maximizing its damage potential.  That attack had her hair sticking out in all directions as she was hit with more electricity all at once than she'd ever experienced before in her life.  And then Chaevaris finished her off with a series of well-placed arrow shots that had the back of her head looking like a pincushion.  The giantess sprawled face-first on the floor of the altar cavern, no longer counted among the living.Inside the freezing fog, Orchid stepped carefully toward the frost giant jarl and, seeing the greataxe he wielded had a wooden shaft, cast a repel wood spell that had his weapon moving rapidly away from her.  The jarl tried to hang on, but was forced to release it once he saw had he hung on - and been dragged along - he'd have been moving directly into the path of the waiting fire elemental, which would have dismissed the magic circle against good protection afforded by the spell against summoned creatures.  Instead, the greataxe, no longer held by the jarl, went flying past the elemental's head to bury itself in the ice wall beyond.  Still, that left the jarl without any weapons but his fists, a fact the distraught expression on his face told Harlan he understood all too well.The jarl tried to make the best of it, swinging his fists down at the half-elf paladin, one hand clanging loudly against the paladin's metal shield.  But Harlan's response - a flurry of attacks with his flaming blade - dealt the jarl more damage than he'd been able to dish out against Harlan.  Ageratum tried entering the freezing fog and swinging where she thought the jarl might be, but she missed due to the almost total lack of visibility inside the globe.  But Harlan made up for it, bringing the jarl down with a few more successful strikes with his Starblade, and the threat from the frost giants and dragons lairing here was no more.Ageratum led the search expedition seeking out the dragons' treasure hoard, and found not only it but the chamber where the frost giants kept their own loot.  As the halfling had expected, it was quite a haul: enough coins, jewels, and gems, to garner each of the heroes thousands of pieces of gold - and that was before the bounty of the slain frost giants was added in.  "Not a bad way to spend a cold winter's evening!" she exclaimed, rubbing her hands together.On the way back out of the glacier lair, Alistair slew the toad with a well-placed magic missile. - - - This session took a lot longer than the previous one; whereas the first part of this two-parter took us a little over an hour to complete, this one lasted from 6:30 PM (our normal start time) to almost 10:00, at which point Vicki was about an hour past the amount of time she prefers to spend on a weeknight playing D&D.  (She suffers from occasional bouts of vertigo, and it gets easier for her to get dizzy the more tired she becomes.)  So Dan promised to try to keep future sessions a bit shorter for her sake.</blockquote>

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