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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1507790" data-attributes="member: 15043">Ever Fought a Dragon Before?  No, I Don’t Believe I Have...“You don’t happen to know how... um...big Klorphaxius happens to be when he’s in dragon form, do you?” Siabrey asked nervously.  Maybe we could get Xanny to help us out, if he’s too big...“No, I’ve never seen him in dragon form... but I know he’s a green dragon!” Pyrion raised a finger in exclamation.  “Whenever he approaches, the air reeks of sharp bitterness... like... chlorine!  You know... like launderers!”The party nodded their heads in understanding... as every one of their minds remembered the sharp, pungent smell that accompanied Emerald whenever he was nearby.Great... so we’ve got an angry green dragon in the city sewers... just lovely, Tess’ mind growled grumpily.  “Let’s head to the palace, shall we?  I think either Xanny or Alexander might be the people to talk to about this one.”“Why are we headed to the palace?” Pyrion asked nervously.  “Do you have a prior appointment?  They wouldn’t let me in when I tried to show them my invention,” he fumbled in the pockets of his short green coat, until he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.  “This is what they were going to charge me with if I didn’t leave... trespassing!”  He raised his hands in disgust as the party, fairly nasty smelling, made their way through the city.“We... know people...” Shaun began slowly, before Siabrey cut him off.“I’m the Crown Princess... high enough ranking for you?” she blurted out, causing Pyrion to stop in midstep in shock, and the others to growl at her lack of subtlety.  “What?” she shrugged.“Um... Highness?” the gnome gave a flourishing bow... which made Siabrey laugh, considering the refuse that covered everyone’s feet save Tess’.  His face, however, regained its former composure.  “Same conditions apply... I wouldn’t care if you were Empress yourself!” “Understood, friend gnome,” Siabrey said.When the party arrived at the palace, everyone save Tess promptly changed their footwear, before tramping through the carpeted halls and the like.  Finally, they arrived in the throne room... and to Siabrey’s relief, Alexander was back on the throne, already cursing at several petitioners that would not listen to him.“You son of a pig smelling Hextor licking bootsmuggler!” Alexander snapped at a person the party recognized... ‘three acre man.’  “Their ruling stands!  If you don’t like it, I can grab you by your ear, and toss you out of this palace myself!  You have fifteen seconds to get the hell out!  One... two... three... thirteen, fourteen!”The man scurried past the party in a hurry, eyes wide with fear.“Petitions are on hold!  Chamberlain, get these cattle moving!” Alexander barked after seeing the party waiting at the entrance to the hall.  Grouchy, angry merchants and nobles streamed out of the hall, until just Alexander and the party remained.  The doors were closed.“Alex, its good to see you’re feeling better!” Siabrey said, with no small amount of relief.  “Screw the cleric and his advice!  I feel fine!” Alex laughed.  “By the gods, I hate dealing with these petitioners asking for things... especially on the eve of a march!”“A march?  Where to, Majesty?” Shaun used Alexander’s real title.  The Emperor gave a grin, as if he expected the party to already know the answer.“To Holstean of course!” the grin grew fierce.  “We bloodied her nose up here, by the gods she’s stunned, confused even!  Gotta take advantage of it, and hit her again while she’s off-balance!  We’re looking to march in the space of a couple days... and all these prim and proper prima donnas can think about is their stupid petitions!” his grin turned to a snarl.“Alex?  Are there any troops you can spare?  We have a slight problem on our hands...” Tess began explaining.The party explained their deal with Pyrion, who eagerly added in what he knew of Klorphaxius.  Alexander for once was stumped... even his own links inside the Thieves’ Guild had not told him of the rivalry that was going on... it had slipped completely under his intelligence net.Xanadu, it turned out, had left Irulas the day before, with Alisandra.  The poor silver was still heartbroken over what happened to Pellaron, and blamed herself.  He’d taken her back to their home lands near Obash... hoping the open countryside, and sleeping out in the wild for a bit might help her come to grips with what had happened.  Similarly, Alexander’s hands were tied.  The vast majority of the troops in the city were preparing for an immediate march on Holstean... detaching too many of them would pose delays.“Majesty!  Are you sure you cannot spare even a division of 5,000?” Tess pleaded, and Alexander slowly shook his head.“No... I can’t.  At least not for a small green dragon.  To fit in the sewers he must be of small size I bet,” Alexander said thoughtfully.  “I could give you two regiments... flush the bugger out for you, though.  I’ll pick two of the regiments slated for mobilization near the end of the callup... it’ll allow you to play with them tomorrow, maybe the day after as well...”“I have a bad feeling about this,” Siabrey grumbled mid-morning the next day.  The party was now assembled on the banks of the Inerman, facing the city in one of the scummier regions of the regional capital.  A massive drain for the sewers, nearly forty feet across, left from underneath the city, its maw coming from the raised brick foundations of the city nearly 60 feet from the waters of the low river.“Well, you didn’t have a better idea,” Orion hissed back.The party had adopted a simple plan... the soldiers would enter along all the man-sized sewer exits throughout the city, and over the course of several hours shouting for Klorphaxius’ arrest, they would drive him towards this very exit.  Its size would be appealing to him, as if he was even a fairly large dragon, he’d have room to come out in natural form.  This very idea, however, gave the party the willies.“What if he’s bigger than Xanny?” Lucius asked slowly.  The Prince had ignored Siabrey’s demands, and strapped on his sword to be beside them once he heard what they were fighting.“It doesn’t matter, the strength of Kord will take the beast down, be the beast a tiny fly, or as great as this city!” Grumki rumbled.“Dear cleric, I sincerely hope you are wrong,” Shaun added, looking worriedly at Elenya.  She too was a victim of stubbornness, once she found out her husband was facing a dragon.“Would you guys be quiet?” Orion snapped, as he leaned his head forward and slightly to the side, his ear picking up slight noise... vibrations that were regular in their form, rumbling up the massive sewer hole in front of them.  Orion squinted, and could barely, in the depths of the darkness, make out two yellow dots... growing larger...“He’s coming!” the monk shouted, and within seconds creaks went through the air as bowstrings were drawn, and hushed voices hummed spellchords or began magical armaments.  By now, the rumble of pounding feet was audible, and all could see by how far apart the yellow orbs were, that what was coming out of the hole was quite possibly almost as wide as the hole...“Dear Corellon in heaven...” Tess whispered, before resuming her slight song.  A mass, enormous and powerful, was now visible, thundering through the corridor, the ground shuddering underfoot as Klorphaxius exploded out of the sewers, with a roar that belied his majesty glory.The beast that now charged towards the party was easily larger than a full adult green dragon... he was nearly the same size as Xanadu... fully 150 feet long, the horns and frills on his head each several feet long.  Black teeth, some over a foot long, stabbed out of his jaws as he roared in surprise and fury at the party blocking his path.Tess immediately launched a ferocious barrage of songstrikes at the beast, but as her wavering blasts of sonic shrieks neared the beast, they seemed to fizzle, as if encountering an invisible wall (Spell Resistance 24).  Elenya fired a blast of lightning, which did seem to harm the creature, just as Orion reacted, leaping into the air.Once again, the party was stunned by the seemingly insane act of the monk.  Orion not only leapt at the dragon, but delivered a furious series of blows directly to the beasts chest.  The dragon reared back, and then attempted to grab the monk to rend him to shreds.  Nimbly, Orion somehow dodged the beasts claws, and with a graceful backflip, landed in front of the creature in fighting stance.Fire from bows sent a flurry of arrows scurrying off of the beast, as Siabrey rushed forward.  In one hand, she held Kelir, who since his touching the bodies of demons, now wreathed himself in flame (when she leveled up in Bondblade at the end of last session, her sword gained the “flaming” ability).  In her other hand, she wielded the same washizaki that Shivalas once used against her, its black blade also coated in flames (she had the magic added between adventures).  Whirling and twirling about, the two blades inflicted grevious damage on the beast.  From the heavens above, a flame strike from Kord also burned and singed the beast.Klorphaxius, greatly irritated by these petty people blocking his way, decided that he was going to stop playing.  The beast gave a great heave from his massive lungs, and a massive spew of acid blasted through the party (16d6 damage... ouch!).  Shaun nimbly managed to avoid taking any damage by flipping and dodging the assault, but few others were as lucky.  Indeed, Lucius and Elenya were horribly burned, and forced to crawl away from the engagement, terribly wounded.Tess once again launched a blast of sonic energy, this one boring through the beasts’ magical protection, setting its organs into a damaging harmonic.  The beast roared in pain, as Grumki pressed forward with his warhammer, Orion launched another assault of kicks and punches, and Siabrey whirled and twirled.  Shaun, the expert archer, tried shots for the creatures eyes, but his arrows unfortunately hit just as the creature blinked, and its thickly armored eyelids glanced the blows away.The beast then decided to use its natural weapons to try and get these humans to leave.  With a vicious bite, the dragon ripped asunder Siabrey’s belly.  Almost simultaneously, it brought its wings down, buffeting Tess viciously, as its claws slashed gaping holes in Orion.  The party was grievously wounded, with no one more than at half strength (most were at 1/3 to ½).Nonetheless, they continued their assault grimly, as the dragon too was showing its wounds.  Tess successfully blasted another triplet of sonic darts at the dragon, causing it to waver.  Grumki and Siabrey charged in with their blades, and Orion with his feet, as Shaun set up a shot that finally connected with the creature’s left eye.Wounded, infuriated, and bleeding, Klorphaxius decided that these humans were too powerful for him to handle right now, and that discretion was the better part of valor.  With a leap, the dragon was airborne, and beating his wings furiously, rose higher and higher in the air, his form rapidly increasing the distance between himself and the party.Infuriated and refusing to let his quarry get away, Orion gave a short run, and gave a jump that almost anyone would be astonished by (abundant step), leaping skyward, and appearing next to the dragon , delivering a furious blast of punches and kicks.  The beast reeled in midair, as Orion grabbed onto its hide for dear life.Tess, too, was infuriated that hte monster would harm the party so badly, and then try to get away.  The beast was easily some 500 feet up in the air by this point, far beyond her normal range with sonic darts.  Yet the bard concentrated, closing her eyes, and imagining the creature was much closer.  When she opened her eyes and delivered her shrieking assault... she knew it was over.For several seconds after she shrieked, the dragon kept rising higher and higher in the air.  Suddenly, it spun, cartwheeled oddly, out of control.  It banked over, its left wing fluttering uselessly, and began a death spiral, spinning straight down  into the river, landing with a titanic spray of water.  Slowly drifting down about the geyser marking the dragon’s doom, was Orion (he had a ring of feather fall).“I got him!” the monk’s voice could be barely heard, calling across the river.“You liar!  I got him!” Tess called back with a laugh.= = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == =  Well, that’s session #18.  It was probably, in terms of content, the shortest session we had all year.  It leads almost directly into session #19, yet another long one, which I shall start as soon as conveniently possible.</blockquote>

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