The messenger who had brought us word that we should return to Diamond Lake was a wiry yet strong looking man who introduced himself as ‘Maynard’. Peering at him through my spectacles, he appeared to be wearing a number of enchanted items of not insignificant power. He did not, however, have a large number of big weapons – he appeared to have overcompensated for this by secreting shuriken and innumerable sai about his person. With a simple glance, I could see at least a dozen of the long three-pointed daggers sticking out of his sleeves, thrust into his belt and dangling in loops at his thighs.
We offered him the run of our (rented) mansion overnight, and agreed that we would set off with him the following day to return to Diamond Lake to see what we could achieve.
We spent a short while descending into the depths of the city to revisit the illithid’s chamber where we found that the scrying pool was still working. We used the pool to look over our homestead, and the devastation there was terrible.
.oOo.
The next morning, we awoke to find Maynard standing impatiently and waiting for us to leave, but although we searched high and low, Malachite was nowhere to be seen. Lying on the pillow in his room was a short note.
“My friends,” it read. “I have seen too much in your company to remain comfortable with the path you have set yourselves upon. A great deal has been risked, and I cannot, in good faith, take my latest companion into still greater danger. I do not feel that I can allow your risks to endanger those who follow me.
“I have therefore taken it upon myself to leave you. I do not enjoy farewells, and have therefore left in my own way. You will, I am certain, find that which you have been seeking - I am sure that this ‘Kyuss’ will come to nothing when faced with your skills.
“I wish you good luck with your hunting.
- Malachite”
Disheartened, we considered our options. With a dragon (described by Maynard as black in colour and of tremendous size) menacing our home town then speed was of the essence. We therefore decided that the best way to get there was to leave our horses at the mansion (which still had several weeks’ rent paid in advance), and for Endo to use a powerful spell of teleportation. The drawback was that Endo only had the power to translocate himself and three others.
“Into the sack, new guy,” was the result of a brief argument. Maynard the Monk was deeply disgruntled, but climbed into the mystical bag of holding, and within a few seconds we were standing near an abandoned farmhouse a short distance out of the town itself. Looking into the town, we could see that many buildings were either crushed or badly damaged, blackened strips of ground were pitted with acid burns, and inhabitants could be seen dragging bodies into rough piles. Both Allustan’s home and Endo’s mother’s house had been utterly destroyed by the dragon’s wrath.
Gritting our teeth, we strolled into the town, where we learned that the beast had been killing citizens; dragging them out into the centre of the town and threatened that it would keep killing the villagers until both Allustan and ‘the adventurers’ were given to it. When nobody spoke, the dragon slaughtered them, by teeth, talon or sometimes by breath.
Eventually, the villagers admitted that they did not know where we were; only that we had gone to the Free City. Allustan had apparently headed to the Whispering Cairn, and so the dragon took flight across the lake 3 days ago, and had not been heard from since.
.oOo.
We set off on foot around the lake, figuring that heading across the lake by boat would single us out as too easy a target for a breed of dragon which could both fly and swim. Once we were within bowshot of the cairn’s entrance, we cast a number of spells, not the least of which was several protective spells which Endo swore would save us from the dragon’s acidic breath.
Igmut cast a couple of his longer-lasting spells, and then we picked our way on foot towards the cairn. Once we were close enough to touch the entrance with a thrown stone, Flynne began to creep forwards low to the floor.
Suddenly, almost directly over Flynne’s head, a huge black form materialised from a blanket of invisibility. The shadow cast by the creature’s outstretched wings covered easily 60 feet from side to side, and we could clearly see the creature’s sinuous neck move slightly as it inhaled and then breathed out a tremendous gout of acid at our elven friend.
Flynne leapt and rolled to one side as the dark acid scorched and burned the ground within inches of him. Noxious fumes boiled up from the pooling acid, and Flynne choked and coughed as he moved away from them. As he went, he fired a shot which struck the hard armoured plates of the creature’s chest before Flynne leapt down into the cairn entrance and then headed a short distance into the cave for safety.
The rest of us, including Maynard, looked at one another nervously.
“What do we do now? Attack, or…?”
I had barely finished speaking before Endo drank deeply from a potion flask and vanished from sight completely. Maynard, moving faster than I could have imagined possible, hurtled across the low grassy hills and dived into the cavern entrance to join Flynne.
“Dragotha take you, the wizard is mine!”
The dragon’s loud bellow echoed around the hills as it landed a few feet above the cairn entrance; its heavy talons crumbling rock as it gripped tightly and cast a protective spell to wreath itself in shimmering protective energies.
Concerned, I cast a spell of displacement on Igmut before throwing myself behind a tree, from where I watched him cast a second spell on himself and also take cover.
From the cover of invisibility, Endo cast a spell and lightning arced through space crackling around the dragon and another point in space. Endo appeared 30 feet away from me, hovering up in the air. As Igmut and I hid behind trees, the dragon clearly though that Endo was the most choice target. Its wings beat heavily as it took off and flew towards him. As it passed, its long neck stretched out and it bit deeply into Endo’s shoulder. The wizard screamed in agony as his blood began to run down his arm and fall pattering to the leaves on the floor 30 feet below.
Across the hill, Flynne stepped out of the cavern and fired his bow. His arrow sailed somehow *through* the dragon, which cackled as it twisted in the air and started sailing back towards us. Panicking now, I cast a spell of my own and turned invisible, whilst Igmut cast another spell before running upwards through the air towards the dragon. Once there, he slapped the creature on its scaly hide. The sound of the contact on the dragon rang out, but whatever spell effect Igmut was obviously expecting to take place failed utterly in the face of the dragon’s mighty resistance to magic.
Hovering carefully backwards through the air, Endo cast another spell, using his uninjured left arm to target the spell as a tremendous black ray boiled through the air and struck the dragon. So powerful was the spell that it tore through the dragon’s resistance, and we could see the dragon’s muscles sag as a good deal of its strength was drained away by Endo’s sinister spell.
As Maynard hurtled through the air twisting like a corkscrew to take up a position some 30 feet to the dragon’s right, the great beast itself roared loudly and then flapped its wings, biting out at Igmut before turning and breathing another huge gout of acid in Endo’s direction. The teeth bit close to Igmut, who pirouetted in the air to avoid the snapping jaws, but Endo was caught in the fumes from the caustic spray and his face turned instantly pale and started to fly away. The dragon flapped its wings and hurtled after him, ignoring the spell which burst from Igmut’s sword slash to its flanks as it went.
Flynne fired his bow repeatedly, but the arrows either glanced off the scarred plates of the creatures hide, or hurtled through the subtle displacement effect around its edges.
Igmut cast another spell which saw him grow in size before moving up towards the dragon lash out and bite deeply into his armoured forearm. Taking advantage of the distraction, Endo cast another spell (which missed the beast owing to the power of its displacement spell, before flying away.
Seizing his moment, Maynard also took this opportunity to fly in at the dragon, one fist outstretched, but he struck only the creature’s thick armour plating. The dragon ignored both the monk and the half orc and crashed to the floor near Flynne, snapping at him and chomping a terrible wound into my elven comrade.
Once again, Igmut and Maynard crashed into the creature’s flank; Maynard was thwarted by the thick scales, but Igmut’s heavy sword stroke crashed in and split one of the scales.
Once again, the dragon roared out. “Go home, and leave me to the wizard!”
A couple more of Flynne’s arrows smacking into the creature’s belly were our answer; followed by Endo flinging a long sliver of bone at the beast, which struck with a flash of dark energy and then shattered. The bone shards fell to the floor, and then sprang into movement, assembling themselves and growing as they stood up in the figure of a nimble, sword-wielding skeleton.
Staring briefly at Endo, Maynard the monk then dashed the short distance across the air towards the dragon and struck at where he thought it was; his blow struck empty air thanks to its spell effects.
Finding myself dangerously close to the dragon, I backed away carefully whilst singing encouragement to Maynard and Igmut. The dragon, however, ignored my presence and lashed out in all its terrible fury at Maynard. Teeth, talons, wing-blows and even the creature’s tail crashed down, and it was all Maynard could do to stagger away clutching at his terrible injuries.
Igmut’s sword swept through empty air near the beast once again, and then Endo cast a spell, which ripped away the glowing of the magic armour the dragon had been protected by.
I cast a spell of hastening, which sent the rest of the group into overdrive; as the dragon lashed out in fury at Igmut (who survived thanks in part to the preparation of the songs I had been singing and the displacement spell I had cast upon him), I continued to sing songs of famous dragon killers.
Flynne, from a short distance down the tunnel, took careful aim and fired. His first arrow crashed into a carefully-picked pale scale in the creature’s belly – the long shaft buried itself through the scale and cracked it down its entire length. Almost immediately, a second arrow hurtled out of the cavern, striking less than an inch below the first; far deeper still. A third arrow was still hurtling out of the cave-mouth, but the job was done.
“Dragotha will take you,” the dragon roared and bellowed in agony, twisted, and then crashed to the floor, still.
.oOo.
As we cast curing spells, we shouted down the mouth of the Whispering Cairn for Allustan, but there was no response. A brief foray into the Cairn itself showed that there was little unchanged apart from a single side-passage. Where previously there had been a huge pile of rocks and rubble blocking the entrance, there was now a short tunnel ending with a dark wood door.
Beyond the door was another length of carved stonework, at the end of which there was a smooth and glossy black surface which bulged out towards us very slightly. When Maynard threw a shuriken at the surface, the weapon disappeared through it, leaving a series of ripples floating on the blackness.
I tore up a sheet of parchment and made a small flying device, which couldn’t penetrate the black surface, but when tied to a rock, the same strip of parchment flew through smoothly with the same, perhaps deeper, ripples. When I poked at the surface with a stick, I could feel it immediately being grabbed by something beyond. Pulling sharply, we could all see a pair of gnarled, decaying hands gripping the other end of the stick. With a yell, I released it, and both the hand and the stick vanished behind the smooth black surface.
Grinning toothily, Igmut picked up another stick and poured water on it from a flask marked clearly with Kord’s holy symbol. He poked this stick through the black portal as well, and we could all hear a hiss.
Igmut cackled before raising his holy symbol and bellowing out the name of his god.
Absolutely nothing happened, and so he raised his shield and headed through the portal with a length of rope tied around his waist. The rest of us waited for a few moments before there was a tug on the rope, and we hauled hard. Igmut was swiftly pulled out of the blackness, and as he came out it was clear that he was holding oneto something. However, no matter how hard we hauled on the rope, we were unable to pull the object out.
Eventually, Igmut released the figure within the blackness, and we retreated to rest and prepare for a more concerted effort to penetrate the black portal the following morning.
