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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2616464" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 460“Cal!” Dannel yelled, drawing the gnome’s attention upward to the falling warriors.  The elf was too far away to intervene, having moved away from their arrival point in order to secure a good position from which to snipe at the dragon, but he knew that Cal’s magical power exceeded his by a considerable margin. Cal looked up and instantly gauged the situation.  Like the others, he had been empowered with the ability to fly, although he had not yet taken advantage of that power.  He did so now, darting across the floor of the cavern, mere feet above the uneven surface.  Lok and Arun had been fairly close when the dragon had hit them with its dispel, but the gnome frowned as he judged the distance between the two descending figures.  He figured that both were tough enough to survive the fall, but better not to take that chance…A musical chord erupted from Cal’s lips, and his feather fall caught both Lok and Arun a mere twenty feet off the ground, softening their descent so that they landed easily upon the jutting ridges of stone that would have otherwise done considerable damage to their armored frames. “Thanks,” Arun said, looking up in time to see the dragon descending rapidly toward them.  For a moment, Mole forgot what she was supposed to be doing as the dragon soared majestically through the darkness of the cavern.  It had gotten a lot dimmer when the elemental was destroyed, although her keen eyes allowed her to see just enough from the light of their magical weapons and Cal’s light spell to make out huge silhouette of the dragon passing by below her.  Thankfully it seemed more intent on her friends below than on plucking her out of the air; but that might have been because thus far, she hadn’t really managed to harm it in any way.  It was just sooo damned big that her tiny crossbow bolts just weren’t going to harm it in any significant way. From below, the companions responded to the dragon’s dive with their own volley of attacks.  Arun and Lok were effectively out of the fight for the moment, their mobility reduced to scrambling over the rough ground of the cavern floor, but Beorna could and did rise to meet it, despite having been considerably roughed up by her encounter with the elemental.  Dannel continued his barrage, scoring hit after hit with his enchanted bow, his arrows jutting from the dragon’s neck and body like needles in a pincushion.  The dragon roared as Beorna lunged at it.  The templar sword dug into its side, but the dragon merely shifted its course slightly, flying through her, knocking her roughly aside into a violent spin that continued for several seconds before she could recover and steady herself.  Hookface continued its dive, flashing through the space above them in a black blur of shadow.  Halfway through its pass fire exploded downward in a torrent, a stream of flame in a long line that engulfed Cal, Lok, Arun, and Dannel in its reach.  Their resistances held, for the most part, although Cal and Lok both took damage as Dana’s wards were overloaded and dissolved.  The next one’s going to hurt, Cal thought, as he reached Arun and touched him with his wand, renewing the fly spell upon the paladin.  But even as Arun lifted off and turned toward the dragon’s wake, they saw it tuck its wings close around its body and vanish like a catapult stone into a broad tunnel that gaped like a black mouth at the far end of the cavern. “No way we’ll catch it, moving at that speed,” Dannel said, coming over to join them.  Beorna, too, landed nearby, looking a mess in her flame-blackened armor.  Cal grimaced and stared into the passage where the dragon had disappeared.  “It’s up to Dana, now,” he said, drawing out one of his healing wands from its scabbard at his hip.* * * * * Hookface barreled through the underground tunnel, using its legs, wings, and tail alike to propel it through the passage at a speed greater than that of a mounted knight at full gallop.  Streaks of hot blood marred the rocks of the tunnel walls and floor as it passed, steaming in the cold air of the deep ways far beneath the earth.  It was already nearly a mile away from its lair, and the volcanic heat that still warmed that place had long since faded. Fear and humiliation burned under a red-hot surge of anger in the dragon’s thoughts as it fled—no tactical retreat or mere withdrawal, this!  To be forced from its lair, and worse, to abandon its treasure to a lot of… humanoids!  The mere thought filled the dragon’s vision with red and banished the pain of its many wounds, nearly driving it to stop and return to reclaim what was its. But Hookface was far too canny to second-guess itself for long.  Within the first ten seconds of the engagement it had recognized the intruders into its lair, and had also acknowledged that the foes it had battled in the wreckage of Cauldron had grown significantly in prowess since that last confrontation.  And they had new friends as well; the gnome was obviously an archmage, while the earth genasi struck even harder than the paladin, with that axe that the dragon could sense was veritably dripping with magical enhancements.  Even the powerful elemental whose services it had… acquired, had barely slowed them down.  No, Hookface knew that if it had lingered to battle the intruders, then the humanoids would now be enjoying the prize of an elder dragon’s corpse in addition to its fabulous horde. Hookface had yielded the day, and the advantage for the moment.  But nor was it without resources, even with its lair overrun, and while these humanoids were powerful, they lacked the experience… and patience… of an old red dragon…Light appeared up ahead; the end of the tunnel was approaching.  Hookface barreled forward, but as it neared the secret exit to its lair a figure appeared, drifting down from above to float in the middle of the opening.  A woman, human, clad in a form-fitting robe with a soft white cloak drawn aside to spill down her back, leaving her arms and legs free to maneuver. Hookface did not stop, did not even slow, charging forward with jaws open to engulf the woman.  Faced with the impressive spectacle of a huge red dragon coming toward her with incredible speed, the woman did not even flinch.  Instead she waved a hand, and uttered a powerful invocation. The result was immediate, and there was no way for Hookface to avoid it.  A deep rumble shook the tunnel, and even as the dragon tried to charge through the area of effect of the earthquake, the ceiling collapsed upon it, burying it under tons of fallen rock and debris. The woman drifted back a few paces as a cloud of dust arose from the mouth of the tunnel.  She was already casting again, even though the dragon had completely disappeared beneath the mountain of rock that had completely blocked the passage. Her caution was well founded, for a moment later the debris pile shifted.  A claw burst through into open air, followed a heartbeat later by the jagged shape of the dragon’s head.  The dragon was covered in pulverized stone dust and dirt and looked terrible.  One eye had been crushed and oozed black fluid, but the other fixed onto the woman, and promised a reckoning.  With a painful hiss the dragon surged forward, just a few feet at a time, now, shaking free from the imprisoning stone that still pinned its body.  The woman calmly continued her invocation.  Finally, she stopped, and regarded the dragon with eyes that were coldly neutral.  The dragon had freed nearly half its body now from the rubble, and was moving faster now, dragging huge boulders out of the slick as it pulled its body clear.  But it was caught off guard as a pair of massive arms rose out of the tunnel floor, locking around its neck in a punishing grip.  The dragon screamed and tore at the grappling arms even as they were followed by a massive body and head that nearly filled the tunnel.  The appearance of the massive elemental obscured the dragon, which fought on with desperation.  Red flames poured out from around the woman’s conjured ally, almost reaching her at the mouth of the tunnel, but she merely watched as the elder elemental she’d drawn from across the planes punished the critically-wounded dragon.  In the relatively cramped confines of the tunnel, with nowhere for it to retreat, there was only one possible ending.  Finally, it was done.  The woman floated forward to confirm it, then dismissed the elemental with a wave.  She spoke a word of magic, and was gone. * * * * * Back in the dragon’s lair, the companions looked up as a light shone in the exit tunnel where the dragon had disappeared just a few minutes previously.  They readied their weapons, but the light quickly resolved into the familiar form of Dana, surrounded by the soft white glow of moonlight, flying through the power of her magical boots. She came to them, hovering well above the ledge where they’d gathered to wait for her.  Most of them, anyway; Mole was already going through the dragon’s horde. “It is done,” she said, her voice flat.</blockquote>

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