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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1247308" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Missing Children“Ooohh,” Sandy groans.  Slowly his eyes flutter open.  “Ugh,” he says weakly.  The sound of water cascades somewhere in the distance.  It’s dark, but... he feels his head gingerly.  Tender, but partially healed.  How...?  Finally, Sandy’s head snaps back into focus.  “The dragon!” he exclaims.  Then, “The bell!”  “Shh, it’s okay,” murmurs Trinia.  The group fills Sandy in.  They’ve been resting, recouping their strength, before trying to ascend to the dragon’s old lair.  “You should see Velea,” sighs Federico.  “She’s beautiful.”  Captain Cavedwarf harrumphs.  The group ascends a slippery, wet ramp that winds around the waterfall.  Wary of fallng- Ed starts crying as she thinks of her poor twin brother Coco- they take their time, moving slowly and carefully.  If it weren’t for the fey, Federico would be whining to go back.  The view is gorgeous- the waterfall is full of some weird luminescence, a glow seemingly from within the water itself.  The spray of the waterfall rapidly soaks the entire group.  At the top, the halflings go through a window and find themselves in some sort of gallery room.  As they pass through the frame of the window, they find themselves completely dry!  The room holds a large chess set.  The pieces are as high as four feet, taller than most of the group (with the exception of Thelonious).  A quick search discovers a draconic face of copper set into the wall and covered with cobwebs.  Captain Cavedwarf rubs it clean, and then jerks his hand back as it speaks."This garden is a lonely placewhere many came, and yet remainthe plants grew strong on fertile groundwatered by legacies of painand should I plow, my plow would breakon cast-off husks of iron grainnow buried where they fell like wheat.What am I?  Speak!  Or face the bane."“Um,” says Sandy, “sounds like a riddle of some kind.”The party turns it over for a moment, but they don’t come up with an answer in time, and one of the chess pieces animates and starts clanking towards them!  Captain Cavedwarf yells out his battle cry and smashes it away with his greatclub, and it stops moving.  “Don’t like riddles,” comments the dwarf.  The group continues along, following a hallway lined with statues of warriors on the left and miners and workers on the right.  The dog whimpers as they move through, afraid that the stone forms will animate at any second.  Fortunately, they do not.  The hallway leads them into a large room, and they move quietly.  “I hear voices,” Sandy warns quietly.  There’s a ramp that leads up towards the direction of the voices.  The party moves quietly up and finds it ends in a wall.  Quick examination reveals that the wall is an illusion, and Sandy pokes his head through to glance quickly about.  The room is huge.  Floored in copper, there’s a rough slaughterhouse, a few animals (stolen, no doubt), and several workbenches.  Large blue crystals are set on tables next to the benches.  In the middle of the room is a human boy- one of the missing children?  He’s gagged and looks helpless.  A large metal cage holds a sleeping girl and another boy, this one pacing back and forth angrily.  All three look hungry, tired and scared, and instantly our heroes know that it’s time to make their move. Further away down the room is an opening, through which a huge carcass lies.  It’s the remains of Copperdeath, the dragon!  For a terrible moment the halflings think it’s moving- but no, something’s coming out of its mouth... several somethings.  Goblins.Headed by a strangely blue-skinned, swollen-headed goblin.“Congratulations,” the thing gurgles in thick Strogassian.  Speaking slowly as if to a half-wit, its accent distorting its words.  “Today is your lucky day, child.  Soon you’ll have power.  Or you’ll be dead.  Either way your life will be better.”Before our heroes can break their momentary paralysis of horror, the blue goblin lifts something small, blue and sharp looking to the child’s head, raises a hammer in its other hand, and pounds the small object directly into the kid’s forehead.Next Time: Crikey, that isn’t nice at all!!  Well, our little heroes are just gonna have to stand up for the little guys here, aren’t they??</blockquote>

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