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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cloudgatherer" data-source="post: 29970" data-attributes="member: 66">Treacherous Road and Death by the DragonSummer spilled into late fall as the adventurers spent their time identifying several magic items.  While Lor practiced his identify spell, Canthor put his skill with magic weapons and armor to work.  Canthor made Star a magical sap, better able to subdue an opponent.  He also took Remus' tower shield from the Forge of Liquid Fire, enchanted it to resist damage from all but the strongest weapons.A full six weeks passed in Aenith.  The party made some money doing odd jobs:  Remus forged armor in a local smithery and Tarmus used his musical talent to pay for food, lodging, and a few new instruments.News of the world reached the party through gossip and the bards tales. Polary is suffering from a goblin and orc invasion.  They are not alone as the dwarven kingdom of Oblarin is suffering the same troubles.  The two kingdoms have so far refused to work together and are protecting themselves.  The Northern Alliance has apparently given up on Ralanov, leaving the betrayer Treespire to his Polarian allies.  In local news, the road between Aenith and Mydrana has grown more treacherous, a couple of adventuring parties have gone missing attempting to unravel the mystery.  Several Gryphon Riders have also been found missing or killed, their surrounding circumstances still a mystery.The party sat around their usual table in the Warrior's Courage, debating what to do.  As the party discussed the matter, an older gentleman entering the inn drew Gwen's attention.  She could feel the presence of another Medallion piece, the only artifact known to be forged by the gods in cooperation.  The older man ran his hand through his gray hair, above average merchant's vestments, and asked to join the party at their table.The party accepted the man to their table.  The merchant Armathon had come to Aenith looking for the adventurers of the bard's tales, the ones who slew the pitfiend, saved Aenith, and the source of so much of Polary's ire.  The party confessed to their deeds of heroism, and Armathon told them they were exactly what he was looking for.Armathon was a travelling merchant, but had recently suffered the theft of some valuable family gemstones:  an emerald, ruby, and sapphire of the same cut and approximate worth.  Through divination magic he has paid for, he determined the items' location, in the mountains to the north of Aenith, roughly five days travel.  The trouble was he believes the gemstones to be in the possession of a dragon, what color or size he doesn't know.  In return for a map detailing the location of the lair, the party can have the entire dragon's hoard provided they turn the gemstones over to Armathon.The party took a day to talk it over.  Gwen informed the party Armathon was in possession of a Medallion piece (an important part of freeing the wizard Cloudgatherer and returning home).  The party decided to take the assignment, possibly bartering for the Medallion piece later.After purchasing their supplies, they set out toward the north.  The mountains to the north-west of Aenith would take several days to reach, having to leave the path and travel the mountains.The second night of their journey, Star and Gale stood watch over their companions.  Footsteps could be heard in the night, lots of footsteps, coming fast toward their camp.  Gale set himself to face the possible foe, while Star drew his bow and gave a whistle to the rest of the party.  In the next breath, a dozen orcs burst from the underbrush, running right toward the party's camp.  Gale sprung into action, slaying an orc while Star followed in suite with an arrow.  As the orcs ran by, Star and Gale fell another pair of orcs, Gale slaying and Star clotheslining another, rending him unconscious.As the sleeping party members jolted to action, the orcs continued to run, straight into the night.  Something had them frightened, enough to run through the party's camp.  The party prepared themselves, readying their weapons and armor.  After two full breaths, a woman's yell could be heard from a little over a hundred feet in front of the party.  A woman wearing leathers, dragging two longswords with her and black hair drapped over her face came into view."Troll," she called softly, as she fell flat on her face.  The promised troll quickly followed, a large ugly green troll wearing pieces of metal from various armors consituting its breastplate.Common knowledge ruled the night as the party prepared all of it's fire based attacks.  Gwen lit several arrows on fire with their campfire as Tarmus produced an image of a fire elemental in front of the troll in an attempt to frighten the troll away.  The troll attacked the image, but the image disappeared right as the troll's claw swept through the empty air.The party was waiting for the troll to come forward.  Lor had made Star invisible while Remus and Yeric were preparing a rope to trip the large creature.  Instead, the troll sought out his closest target, Yeric, and proceeded to claw the young Woodblood.In response, Star charged the troll, attempting to releive him of his kidneys.  As he approached the troll, his invisibility ability suddenly faded as the troll quickly stepped to his left, only allowing Star's rapier to leave a grazing wound instead of a fatal one.  Thoroughly spooked, Star retreated from the troll as Gale and Remus closed in on him, Gwen proceeded to fill the troll with fire arrows, and Canthor dragged the young woman, who he found to be Sheila Freefall of the Riders, away from the battle as he healed her wounds.Meanwhile, in the midst of combat, the troll began to show his true colors.  He tore repeatedly into Gale, using his sharp claws to rip into his flesh.  In a matter of two breaths he had been flung to the ground by the troll as it tore Gale's flesh.Something was different about this troll, magic was surpressed around him and he moved with superiour awareness of his surroundings.  Star and Gwen continued to fill the troll with arrows as the breast-plated beast tore into Remus, the party leader.  His strength failing, his injuries nearly overcoming his senses, Remus struck the blow that brought the troll down.With fury Remus continued to beat the troll, determined to keep the monster down.  Soon, flame was set to the beast, leaving only burnt metal and bones, from the troll and a few human bones in his stomach.The threat over, the party looked in on the unconscious gryphon rider, and spent the rest of the night in their usual watchful shifts.The next morning, Sheila related her tale to the party.  She had been looking for the culprit responsible for the deaths of her fellow rider.  She had been attacked by a big blue dragon, and was separated from Winter, her faithful gryphon.  In the last few days, she had been avoiding the particularly nasty troll the party slew, being no match to stand against it alone.The party considered their options.  They were after the dragon, and now had more information about their target.  In addition, the troll, the anti-magic troll, had been responsible for many deaths and possibly has treasure at its lair.  Sheila volunteered to track down what she could, while the party dealt with the dragon.  Her plan was to proceed to Aenith afterwards, hoping to reunite with her gryphon there.The party proceeded north, and soon came to the mountains.  On the 5th day of their journey, the party looked into the sky, seeing a dragon circling over head.  The party choose to seek cover under a ledge in the mountainside, the elevation still being relatively low, and the slopes still walkable.Taking refuge under the ledge, they could feel the dragon hit the ground above them, close and waiting.  Tarmus sent a horse down the slope, but it was quickly zapped by the dragon's breath.  Tarmus proceeded to cast invisibility on another horse and sent it out.  It met the same fate as the first horse.  "That answers that question," Tarmus said.  "He can see invisible things."The party was frightened by the dragon's presence, and their thoughts turned to dealing with their fear:  the dragon.  Taking a metallic rod from his pocket, Star looked at the party questioningly.  Breaking it would attract the attention of the Dark Wizard, their greatest foe, but the party was desperate.  Under the party's insistence, Star broke the rod.  At first nothing happened.  Then, the Dark Wizard stood directly in front of the elven rogue.  Star seemed to point and babble a bit, but the Dark Wizard only had a moment to ponder what it meant as Gale rushed him, attempting to push him out from under the ledge, making him the target of the dragon's lightning breath.Gale flew right through the Dark Wizard.  He had only sent them his illusion, much to Gale's discontent as he became the target of the dragon's lightning.  The situation gave the Dark Wizard a good chuckle, and seeing the party was not interested in joining the Mithral Blades, his illusion faded away.Recovering from his frightened state, Star decided talking might be a better approach.  He stuck out his hands, and slowly emerged from behind the ledge.The dragon did not stirke him down instantly.  Instead, he studied the elf intently."Hello there!" Star called.  The dragon looked at the elf with an expression of curiousity, not understanding a word Star said.Tarmus decided to try talking as well.  He emerged alongside Star, and addressed the dragon in his native tongue.  "Hello great lizard!"The dragon gave him a low growl.  "Who are you?" asked the dragon."Well, my name is Tarmus," Tarmus began, " and you're a dragon.  Ever have a song written about you? I mean... you're a dragon, wow."As Tarmus spoke about the greatness of dragons, Lor quipped, "What are you doing so far south?" from the safety of the ledge.  The blue dragon tired of the questions and the ranting, he had one thing on his mind:  gold."I grow tired of this human," the huge blue dragon informed the bard, "I will make you this deal:  you can leave your money with me or I can kill all of you.  If your friend keeps moving, he's going to feel my fury," finished the dragon, indicating Star who had been moving away from the ledge and Tarmus.Tarmus passed along the translation, but Star kept moving away each time a growl escaping from blue dragon.  Finally, Star took one step too many, and the dragon loosed his lightning breath upon the elven rogue.Even Star's nimbleness was not fast enough to dodge the blast.  The bolt caught him full on, his magic elemental protection (courtesy of Gwen) had managed to absorb part of the damage, the rest wounding Star.The party sprung into action, the fighters emerged from the ledge, Star drew his rapier and attacked the dragon.  Lor threw his most powerful fireball spell at the dragon's hind quarters, having no effect on the dragon, as Canthor called divine fire to strike the dragon, scorching the great blue.  With a vicious bite and claw, Star suffered severe injuries from the blue as Gwen fired arrows into the blue's scales, injuring him greatly.The fighters closed the gap to the dragon, who used his attacks to drive them off, using his claws, wings, and mouth with devastating results.  Gwen continued to riddle the dragon with arrows, dealing a great deal of pain to the blue.  Tarmus hasted Lor, who now threw twim spells into the dragon, with roughly half being turned away by the dragon's innate resistance to magic attacks.  The dragon made his way passed Remus and Gale, and reached it's long neck out to bite the elven ranger who had riddled his hide with arrows.  With devastating effects, Gwen was bitten cleanly, suffering almost fatal injuries.  Taking a single step back, Gwen continued her barrage of arrows at the blue.As wave after wave of magic missles from Lor struck the blue, the fighters Remus and Gale once again closed the gap on the dragon and continued their assualt.  Canthor and Tarmus were busy healing the wounded, Yeric used his special technique in an attempt to wound the dragon, to no avail.  Taking a single step forward, the dragon bit again into the elven ranger as it dug it's claws into her sides.  Gwen fell away from the dragon's clutches, lifelessly falling to the ground.The party continued to lay into the dragon.  Another wave of magic missles pouring into the dragon from Lor, Remus and Gale dealing a minimal amout of damage as Canthor prayed to his god to help his friends.After an unsuccessful barrage of blows against Remus, the party leader, the dragon took to the air, retreating for the time being.  As he left, Lor let twin ice storms loose upon the blue dragon, but it's resistance to magic protected the dragon from the deadly spells.  With a single lone shot, Star managed to plant one last arrow into the dragon as it flew away.On the slopes of the mountains, a wounded party stares into the sky where the dragon turned around the mountains.  The dragon has managed to avoid death, but has sent the elven ranger Gwen to the afterlife.  What will the party do now?</blockquote>

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