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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 373530" data-attributes="member: 221">Chapter 12 – Dragon Island     The dreams were bad.  Lying in the dark room, lit only by the soft glow of the ruby, streaming slightly out from the bedroll in which it was wrapped, each of the four companions slept fitfully.  Their dreams were filled with images of the ruby and the voice offering them any wish they desired, even friendship with the dragons of the island, if they would but smash the ruby.    Tilliana felt the dawn coming at last and roused her companions.  After a brief moment spent meditating, she prayed over the pale and clammy half-elf.  As she prayed, some color returned to the poisoned cheeks and some small movement to the limbs.  Twice more Tilliana prayed for the half-elf to recover and at the end of her prayers, Niccolo could move more easily, though he was still sluggish and his muscles ached.  The poison was not completely out of his system.      As they discussed their plans for the day, the general consensus was to leave the ruby where it was.  Alairic, who had wanted to leave it alone to begin with reasoned, “The one we killed yesterday, it seems like he was just waiting for us to take it, maybe the mark over the door kept him from coming in here, but did not stop us.  So he needed us to move it out of the room.  Therefore, if we keep it in here it will be safe.”    “I think we killed the real villain when we killed him,” said Tilliana.  The others seemed to agree.  They worked out the date in their heads and realized that they had left the villagers waiting in the ship for three days.  It was time to head back and go home.    They traipsed out of the room, leaving the ruby on the table tied in the bedroll.    As they approached the stairs it dawned on them that they had forgotten about the pirates they had left tied up.    “Oops,” said Niccolo, “That would be swell, if we just left them here to starve to death.”    The right thing to do seemed to them to take the men with them.  They passed the hall leading to the stairs and went back into the room where they had left the bodies tied.  The smell of blood was the first thing to assail them.  The sight of the ravaged bodies was next.  Something had killed the men and partially eaten them.    Niccolo, swallowing his distaste, bent to examine them.  The marks seemed to have been made by some large bird.      “They were probably killed by that thing you slaughtered,” said Niccolo to Alairic.     “There’s a lot of probablies here,” said Alairic nervously, “we need to be cautious.”  He scanned the room for evil, but could sense none.      “You know what,” said Tilliana, “The body wasn’t there, where Alairic had killed him, the body was gone.”    With a start, the others realized she was right.  When they had entered the trap hallway, leaving the room with the ruby, the body had not been where they had let it lay.  Slowly, not sure what to expect, they made their way to the stairs.  There, just at the door, was the feathered body of the monster that Alairic had slain.  It’s head was missing.  Someone or something had dragged the body to the door and then had removed the head.  A trail of blood led through the door.      “This gets better and better,” said Niccolo, visibly spooked.      “Maybe we should examine the rooms down here,” said Alairic.    The others agreed to this and they went back checking each room.  But there was no life in any of them, only the bodies of the pirates.      Returning to the door to the stairs, Niccolo bent to examine the headless corpse.  Something had torn or ripped the head off he decided and relayed his opinion to the others.      “We should burn the body,” said Alairic.    “Why,” asked Niccolo, “It will just attract scavengers.”    “I think it would keep them away,” said Alairic defensively, and then another thought struck him, “Hey, you remember all those other heads we found, on altars and things.”    The others did remember, how could they have forgotten such sights.      “The altar upstairs,” said Niccolo.    They moved swiftly up the strange stairs to the next door.  There was blood, they noticed, on the stairs.  Opening the door out of the stairwell they looked out.  Nothing moved in the hallway beyond.  Moving stealthily into the hallway they looked left and right.  Nothing was there, though they could hear the faint sounds of snoring.    “Kobolds,” said Alairic, trying to guess the source of the slumbering sounds.    “Left or Right?”    “Right,” said Alairic leading the way to the door at the end of the hallway.  He opened it.  It led into the room in which they had killed the kobold priest.  It was currently empty.      “Other way,” said Niccolo and once more they followed Alairic who led by the light of their last remaining torch.  The door at the opposite end of the long hall did indeed lead into the large altar room.  They made their way past the stone benches and looked at the altar.  It was just as they had left it.  There was no head.      It was then that Alairic noticed the gleam of gold to their right.  Up in the alcove above the floor, where the winged lizards had been, there was now gold.  Alairic could just see it.  He drew his companions attention to it.  After a very brief discussion, Kinshag was scaling the wall, seeking out handholds and working his way up to the alcove. Shortly he was within.    “Gold,” he called back, “There are thousands of gold pieces up here, and gems as well.”    “See if they will fit in here,” said Alairic and tossed up the bag he had just acquired, the one that seemed to hold so much.  Kinshag swiftly swept it all into the bag.  It did indeed fit.    “I knew it,” said Alairic with a grin, “a bag of holding.”  He had heard tales of such bags.    “There are reptilian tracks down here,” said Niccolo examining the floor, “Large reptilian tracks.”  Images of the great dragon filled their minds but they soon realized the tracks were too small for that.    “The daughter,” was Niccolo’s conclusion, “but I don’t want to meet up with her again either.”    Filled suddenly with a sense of urgency, they swept out of the temple, emerging at last into the bright sun of morning.  They saw no-one and nothing around and so moved quickly southwards through the woods towards the cliff and the ledge.  It was not actually that far and they made good time.  As they reached the cliff, they heard a scream in the distance.  It was a high wail coming from the direction in which they had just come. Alairic’s and Tilliana’s first impulse was to go back and see who needed help, but as a second scream sounded in the distance, they could hear the anger in it and realized it was no one in need of help.  As swiftly as they could, they lowered the lift to the ground and raced into the woods, southwards towards the beach.    The sight that met their eyes when they finally reached the beach some minutes later was not the one they expected.  The ship was no longer in the water.  It had been dragged a hundred yards onto shore, up to the line of the trees.  The masts had been snapped and there was a ragged hole in the hull.  As they stared dumbfounded at the beached ship, eyes began looking out fearfully from within the ship.      “Its them,” said a voice and soon a crowd of villagers was exiting the bowels of the ship to greet the heroes.      “What happened,” said Niccolo.    “It was the dragon,” said Tiolo, moving through the crowd, “He came the night after you left and pulled the ship ashore.  He told us that he would keep his word even if others could not keep theirs and took two of us.  We could do nothing to stop him.  And he has done the same thing each evening, he has taken six total since you left.”    “How are we going to get home!” wailed a woman.    The companions wondered the same thing.  Hope seemed to have fled.    “Well, lets go fight the dragon,” said Tilliana stoutly, “the young one.”    “What!” said Alairic.  “Maybe we can get her to get her father to free us,” said Tilliana, “or allow us to hitch a ride.”  Alairic shook his head doubtfully.“Maybe we could get Niccolo to swim and pull the ship in his teeth,” said Alairic.  Niccolo shot the paladin a look.  Tilliana observed Niccolo’s slowed condition and decided that maybe they weren’t quite up to fighting the small dragon.  “Maybe we have to make a wish after all,” observed Niccolo.Tilliana’s brain was racing however and as she recalled her dream from a few nights before she scrambled through her belongings until she found the white feather she had taken off of the dead pirate captain.  The words of the song from the dream came back to her.“When you stand upon the sand,with a feather in your hand,say oldama…”    Holding the feather in her hand she stood uncertainly, looking at the beach, wondering where she should stand.  Should she stand by the destroyed boat or by the water’s edge.  She stood there for several minutes, unmindful of the others trying to calm the villagers.  Alairic was speaking to them in small groups and individually, trying to encourage them.  Finally he noticed Tilliana.  Going to where she was standing Alairic saw her holding the white feather.      “Need help?” he asked.    Swiftly Tilliana explained her dream to Alairic and as she did so, she made up her mind.  Striding towards the water, she stopped just at the edge.  Then, holding the feather aloft, she strode purposefully into the ocean water and said, “Oldama.”    The feather flew from her hand, and landing on the water, transformed in a blinding flash of white light into a white boat, shaped like a swan.  Within the boat, there appeared to be enough room for all.    “That’s pretty,” said Niccolo.    “It’s a miracle,” whispered some of the villagers in awe.    “Praise Naemae!” said Tilliana, turning to the small crowd, “Now get in the boat.”      Each one clambered into the boat, Tilliana last of all.  As she got in, she was aware, though she did not know how, that the boat would move at her direction.  Getting her bearing she tried to decide which way to go.    “Which way is southwest?” Tilliana asked Niccolo.  Niccolo took his bearing and pointed.    “That’s the way we go then,” said Tilliana.  And soon the swan boat was gliding through the ocean water.    As they left the island behind, they caught a glimpse of a small green draconic figure gliding over the tree tops, but soon the island was behind them, dwindling in the distance.</blockquote>

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