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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7859669" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 68: CLAUGUTHRAX'S CHALLENGERPC Roster: Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 18             Darrien, half-elf ranger 18             Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 18             Gilbert Fung, human wizard 18             Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 18NPC Roster:Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 12Game Session Date: 11 November 2019- - -Having been summoned to the castle by a page, the heroes arrived in full gear not knowing exactly what to expect.  They were brought at once before Queen Kaelanna, who thanked them for their speedy arrival and had her dwarven guards lead them all outside to the courtyard.  "He should be here shortly," the queen said.Before anyone could ask who would soon be arriving there was a thunderous rustling of wings and the unasked question was answered as the green dragon Clauguthrax arrived.  "Have they been briefed?" he asked his half-sister, the queen."Not yet – they've only just arrived," she said."Very well," replied Clauguthrax, looking down at the group of assembled heroes.  "We're about to receive an unwelcome visitor.  I want you here as a show of force, mainly – we don’t want to initiate combat here, where there are innocents likely to be slain in the aftermath.  So we’re going to hear what he has to say, and then I'll do the talking.""Who this unwelcome visitor?" demanded Gilbert Fung, but before anyone could answer one of the dwarven guard pointed up at the sky; another draconic shape came into view, this one with scales of a deep red.  It approached rapidly, landing before the assembled group in a blast of dirt and grit from his wings."You must be Clauguthrax," the red dragon sneered.  "I am Banelothlor.  I understand you have claimed this kingdom as your own and stand as its protector.  I am here to inform you your services are no longer required – I will be performing that task from this day forth.""By whose authority?" demanded Queen Kaelanna."By my own!" snapped Banelothlor.  "By one with the power behind the claim!"  He turned his attention to Clauguthrax.  "Or do you wish to challenge my right?""What are your terms?" asked Clauguthrax in a quiet voice, his head lowered and his gaze directed at the ground before Banelothlor."My services do not come for free.  I require tribute, of a quantity commensurate to my worth.  Six head of cattle, to be delivered unto me each month.  And 50,000 pieces of gold as a retainer, another 10,000 each month to be delivered with the cattle.""And in return?" asked Queen Kaelanna stiffly, keeping a regal bearing."In return, you will have the prestige of having a red dragon as the guardian of your kingdom.  I will even permit you to put my likeness upon the flags of your castle – I think that would be an appropriate touch.  And, perhaps most importantly...I will not raze this place to the ground for the effrontery of having had dealings with a lowly green when your land is part of the territory I now claim as my own."Clauguthrax looked down at his half-sister.  "We will need time to gather the tribute," he said, while the queen just bunched her fists and said nothing, fuming silently."You have a week," replied Banelothlor.  "See that all is in readiness upon my return."  The red dragon then turned his back upon his lessers, leaped into the air, and with a mighty flapping of powerful wings took to the skies, heading back the way he had come.As Queen Kaelanna and those around her watched the red dragon fly away, she turned to her half-brother and let out the sigh she'd been holding in.  "And now...?" she asked.Clauguthrax snarled, "Now we have a week to track that bastard down to his lair and slay him.""I like the way you're thinking," enthused Binkadink.  Finoula, in the meantime, was examining the ground where Banelothlor had landed.  "What are you looking for?" the gnome asked her."I was hoping he might have shed a scale or something," Finoula replied.  "We could use it to scry on him, maybe track down his lair that way.""Take a care with that," advised Clauguthrax.  "He is a dragon; he'll likely detect any attempts to scry directly upon him - and knowing we're doing so will make him suspicious that we haven't been cowed into total submission by his august presence.""There other ways we can track him down," advised Gilbert.  "With Your Majesty's permission, we see what we can find out.""By all means - do what you can, and please keep me informed.""Yes, Your Majesty."Returning back to Battershield Keep, the group discussed options.  "Can you guys cast a divination spell or something?" Darrien asked Gilbert and Hagan."I got nothing like that prepared," Gilbert admitted.  Hagan confessed he had no personal experience with such spells; he preferred those which could be used to inflict massive bodily harm upon his enemies.  "Still, we can assume he lairs north of us," pointed out the half-orc sorcerer, "as that's the direction he arrived from and the way he headed when he took off.""That just a guess," argued Gilbert."But a logical one," countered Hagan.  "The Clatspur Mountains are to the north and red dragons prefer making their lairs in mountainous terrain."  Gilbert had to admit it made sense."I think I have spell on scroll might help," Gilbert recalled, flipping to the inside back cover of the Omnibook where his various arcane scrolls were copied and stored.  Flipping through the list, he hit upon the one he wanted.  "Here we go: discern location.""Cool - are you going to cast it now?" asked Darrien."Now?  No!  Cast it from scroll, it gone for good.  I study it, figure out how spell works, then cast it after transcribe it in spellbook!  Then I have spell from now on!""But it'll take longer that way!" griped Darrien."We have week!  These spell scrolls expensive!" argued Gilbert - and in the end, the stubborn mage won out.  Thus it wasn't until the next day that Gilbert announced he was ready to cast his newly-mastered discern location spell.  Everyone gathered around the portly wizard as he began his spellcasting, but the excitement started to wane as the minutes passed and he was still performing his incantations - this was, apparently, one of those spells that took several minutes to even finish casting.  Binkadink wandered back to the kitchen to fetch a snack.  By the time he had helped himself to a hunk of cheese and wandered back outside in the courtyard where Gilbert was casting the spell, the wizard had finally almost completed the lengthy ritual.  "'bout time!" muttered the gnome to himself."Got it!" Gilbert hissed in excitement.  "He lair inside volcano!  'Hellplume,' it called.  You right, Hagan - he up in Clatspur Range!""Then we can teleport in," suggested Hagan."What, just teleport into volcano crater?  That good way to die!""We need to scout the area out first," reasoned Finoula.  "I'll have Jinkadoodle fly me up that way in the dragonfly ship, then I can cast a commune with nature spell close enough to his lair to gather details about it, while staying far enough away not to alert him to my presence.""Hmmm," mused Gilbert.  "...And I can scry just on you without alerting dragon.  Okay - good plan!""I'll come with, just in case," offered up Binkadink.  And thus it was that Finoula flew up to the Clatspur Range accompanied by the gnomish cousins, the illusionist of the pair piloting the vessel.  Back at Battershield Keep, Gilbert and the others watched their progress through the wizard's crystal ball, ready to teleport to their aid if the need arose.Exiting the dragonfly vessel via the ladder lowered over its side, Finoula dropped to the ground and spread her fingers along the hard rocks of the mountainside.  She then began a low chanting - and Binkadink, climbing down by her side, realized with dismay this commune with nature spell was another of those with a 10-minute-long casting time.  Doing his best to reel in his impatience, he kept his magical glaive at the ready and his eyes on the terrain all around him as well as the sky above, making sure no draconic shapes came into view while the ranger was immersed in her spellcasting.Many minutes later, Finoula suddenly stopped her low chanting and turned her head to the side, as if listening intently to something only barely discernible.  Binkadink, for his part, heard nothing.  But then the ranger shook her head, blinked her eyes, and said simply, "Got it.  Let's go."  And she started up the ladder extended from the upper deck of the ship.  Binkadink followed and Jinkadoodle flew the ship back to its cloud island hangar, before the trio returned to Battershield Keep via the carpet of teleportation the gnome fighter kept in his room."Well?" asked Gilbert upon their arrival.  Finoula explained what she'd learned: Banelothlor's lair was inside a sealed cavern accessible only through a magma pool, easy access to a red dragon immune to heat and flame but a formidable obstacle to those not so endowed; the lair was but one of two layers of caverns in the side of the Hellplume Crater, the upper level being the lair of five lesser dragons; and the "lesser dragons" she'd sensed, once she focused upon them, were in fact half-red dragon lizardfolk.  "More than likely, they were imbued with red dragon traits in the same manner as Queen Kaelanna was imbued with green dragon traits: this Banelothlor likely had the lizardfolk eggs hatch from inside the fragments of a red dragon eggshell."  Finoula sketched out a simple diagram of the cave system she'd sensed: the upper level was a series of three main caverns side by side with two openings to the central crater along the middle and left; while the lower system was more like one big area shaped somewhat like the letter "E" on its side, the central part being a ramp leading down into magma."So who do we go after first, the dragon or the five lizardfolk?" asked Malrin.  After some discussion, it was decided to take out the five lizardfolk first, as it would be easiest to enter the dragon's lower lair via a dimension door spell from one of the upper level caves - and that would be easier if the current inhabitants of the caves had already been dealt with."So, when do we go in?" asked Binkadink, eager to take on these draconic foes.  The red dragonhide armor he wore was proof he'd been able to help take down a red dragon in the past and although Banelothlor was much bigger than the one he'd slain before he was eager to meet the challenge head on."Tomorrow," Gilbert replied.  "Now we know what exactly we're up against, we prepare spells we need to take these guys down."  So more waiting, Binkadink thought to himself.  But while he was annoyed by the constant delays he couldn't deny having powerful spells to back up the front-line combatants was a definite boon.  He ambled back to his room to take off his armor and set aside his weapons for the day; it didn't look like they'd be needed today after all.The next day, though, all was in readiness.  After some talking among themselves, Binkadink decided he'd leave Obvious behind on this mission, not wanting to expose his trusty jackalope steed to an environment where lava was a major factor.  The two rangers likewise opted to leave Wrath and Grumps Junior behind but Darrien, knowing that riding a steed was a big part of Binkadink's fighting style, offered to loan him his ebony fly for the upcoming fight.  "Thanks!" said the gnome, pocketing the figurine of wondrous power."I saw enough yesterday through the crystal ball to be able to teleport us directly to where the dragonfly ship landed," Hagan announced.  He had been likewise tempted to leave his weasel familiar Wezhley behind, but having just done so when facing the invasion force from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt, he was of no mind to make this a habit - plus, Wezhley had promised his master he'd stay in place on the half-orc's shoulder.  "So gather up, and we'll be off."  The group crowded around the sorcerer, he cast the teleport spell, and they stood on the mountaintop in the Clatspur Range.  Off to the west they could see a plume of smoke rising lazily in the cold mountain air, as obvious a signal of the direction to the Hellplume as they could have asked for.A draconic shape landed near the group but it was only Clauguthrax, who had headed toward the Hellplume some time earlier.  The group had informed the dragon - and his half-sister, Queen Kaelanna - of what they had discovered about Banelothlor's lair and the green dragon had insisted on coming along for the kill.  "I won't be able to enter the caverns with you due to my size," he said, "but I can be stationed at the rim of the crater and attack anything that gets by you, trying to escape.""Prep spells," commanded Gilbert as the group approached the rim of the Hellplume.  The rangers took the lead, Binkadink eagerly just behind them, but then Gilbert sent Mudpie ahead to reconnoiter, for the earth elemental could literally glide through the mountain rock without leaving a trail behind.  And his increased size - Mudpie now stood a whopping 16 feet tall - would likely come in handy if he met up with any trouble on the way.  Gilbert kept in mental contact with him over their shared empathic link.Mudpie approached the upper caverns carved into the side of the Hellplume crater, sticking just his head through the ceiling to spy down at the areas below.  Gilbert, by this time, was scrying upon his familiar through his crystal ball (confident that by focusing upon Mudpie he had little chance of alerting Banelothlor of his activities), so he could actually see the caverns - and their inhabitants - for himself.  The others peered over his shoulders to see as well.Mudpie made a leisurely ceiling "stroll" along the cavern complex, finding a total of four red-scaled lizardfolk in the various chambers, two of them much larger than normal for the lizardfolk race and sporting wings.  As for the location of the fifth nobody could be sure - perhaps out hunting?  But the group got a good understanding of the layout of the cavern complex, even noting the hidden second entrance that was covered by a permanent illusory wall; apparently one of the lizardfolk - or perhaps Banelothlor himself - was capable of casting illusion spells.  There were also what at first looked like leather sacks or something hanging on the walls over in the sleeping area, although closer inspection showed them to have facial features - they were the skinned faces of various humans and elves.  Finoula shuddered at the sight.Darrien had prepared a commune with nature spell of his own, anticipating the need for further information once they got their first good look of the terrain in which they'd be fighting.  Despite the lengthy casting time, the spell paid off in allowing the ranger to find the fifth half-dragon lizardfolk: he was almost completely submerged in the bubbling magma just outside the lair, only his eyes remaining above the surface, allowing him to act as a hidden sentry."Okay, Gilbert, do you want to cover the entrances with your tentacle spells?" Darrien asked the mage.  "Then we can have Hagan teleport us in and they'll have no way to escape.""Didn't prepare any Evard's black tentacles spells this morning, admitted Gilbert."Oh, walls of force, then?""Uh...no."  Gilbert soon had to admit he hadn't thought about sealing up any exits from the cavern system.  "You were the one who made us wait an extra day so you'd have the right spells prepared!" thundered Binkadink."Yeah, well...I got plenty other good spells ready!" Gilbert blustered.  "Come on!  Let's go in!  We don't need to seal off exits - we got this!"  Shrugging his shoulders, Hagan cast a teleport spell that transferred the entire group into the tunnel just past the main entrance to the lair - the one on the left, not protected by an illusory wall spell.There was a half-dragon lizardfolk on guard duty, crouched down in the tunnel and looking out over the magma pool.  Situated as he was, his back was turned to the group of heroes who had suddenly appeared in the tunnel leading to the sleeping cave.  Before Vornak Bloodscale could even register their presence, Darrien shot a cluster of arrows into his broad back.  The half-dragon spun about in shock and surprise, only to have another pair of arrows come flying his way in rapid succession, this pair shot by Malrin, who had prepared plenty of healing spells that morning and thus was rather low on attack spells.From the back cavern, Virmillius Fireblood heard signs of combat coming from the front and shook his head in resignation; despite Banelothlor's assurances that the kingdom of Kordovia had bowed before his might, the lizardfolk sorcerer had been half expecting some sort of pre-emptive strike.  He cast a protection from cold spell upon himself, realizing it was the most likely avenue of attack by any spellcasters the group of intruders might have, and reached for an ornate flask he had stored in the back of his arcane cavern.Alerted by Vornak's cries of pain, Yompok the Face-Saver rose up from magma, ran up to the sleeping caves - and right into the slashing blade of Binkadink's magical glaive as he approached around a corner.  But from the next cavern over Djop sprinted up, his kama in hand and ready to strike.  There was a silver-haired elf before him; she was as good a target as any.  Djop swung his kama in a lateral strike that only grazed the elf, but then Finoula retaliated with a strike of her own, Tahlmalaera drawing blood as its blade cut a line of pain across the lizardfolk monk's chest.But Djop hadn't been the only lizardfolk in the combat cave.  Grandalvass lumbered up, his massive greataxe in hand, the weapon as proportionally large as the towering half-dragon.  His wings flapped in excitement, although the low ceiling prevented the massive monster from becoming airborne.Binkadink carried on with his attacks against Vornak Bloodscale, his initial hit having been a reflexive maneuver when he caught the lizardfolk's form rounding the corner from the entry tunnel.  His glaive cut deep, causing a flow of blood to intermingle with the half-dragon's already-red scales.  With a roar of pain, Vornak charged the gnome, but Binkadink's combat training allowed him to stab at the lizardfolk with his glaive again as he crossed the distance between them.Gilbert, in the meantime, cast a waves of exhaustion spell at both Djop and Grandalvass, maneuvering to ensure he didn't also catch Finoula in the spell's area of effect.  Both lizardfolk were affected - and neither of them appreciated the lowered effectiveness of their combat prowess the spell brought their way.A sudden crash directly behind Djop alerted the monk - too late to dodge out of the way - that Mudpie had dropped from the ceiling.  He brought a massive fist crashing down upon the lizardfolk, momentarily staggering the monk by the power of the blow.  Hagan cast a polar ray - in so doing using the exact attack stratagem Virmillius had anticipated - directly at Grandalvass, striking the hulking fighter in his massive chest.  But despite it having been anticipated by the half-dragon sorcerer, Virmillius hadn't had time to protect any but himself from cold-based attacks and the polar ray caused Grandalvass a considerable amount of pain.  With a roar of outrage, the fighter determined he'd make that scrawny little half-orc pay with his life!Darrien pumped another tight grouping of arrows into Vornak's skull, slaying him instantly.  Malrin found a new target in Yompok, sending an arrow or two his way now that her initial target had been taken out of the picture."Arise and assist!" commanded Virmillius, rubbing the metal flask he'd grabbed.  Immediately, a stream of reddish mist escaped from the flask's opening, expanding and coalescing into a demonic-looking figure.  "I obey, Master!" the efreet replied, following the towering, winged sorcerer out of the arcane cave and over toward the combat cave, from where the sounds of battle were coming.  As he followed his erstwhile master, the efreet faded from view, casting an invisibility spell upon himself.  He might be forced into servitude but nothing said he couldn't look after his own best interests while doing so.Binkadink was the closest target to Yompok the Face-Saver, so he swung his halberd in the gnome's direction.  The longer reach of the little gnome's weapon might have helped spell Vornak's doom but Yompok's halberd was just as long as Binkadink's glaive, so he'd be afforded no such advantage!  Thus reassured, the lizardfolk fighter moved in to attack.  But his confidence was false, for Binkadink quickly proved to be the better combatant, cutting down the Face-Saver with the blade of his glaive in a few short but effective strokes.Djop swung again at Finoula with his kama, hoping to take out the silver-haired elf before he was slain.  Fleeing to save himself never once crossed his mind; Banelothlor had raised his troop of five half-dragons to be unswervingly loyal and they'd each rather die in his defense than retreat.  That way led to death in any case, at the hands of the red dragon - guaranteed to be a much more painful death than the swift release in combat against these intruders.Finoula lifted a hand to the amulet she wore around her neck and with a mental command her body discorporated, transformed into a blast of lightning and coursing through the scaled forms of Djop and Grandalvass.  She reappeared behind the hulking fighter, unaware that Virmillius was now approaching from behind her, as was his invisible efreet servant.  Grandalvass, in the meantime, unleashed the blast of fiery breath he'd been preparing, sending a cone of flames engulfing Binkadink, Hagan and Wezhley, Gilbert, Mudpie, and Malrin; it would have gotten Finoula as well had she not escaped in lightning-form just a moment before.Gilbert cast a shapechange spell and immediately shifted form - into that of a pit fiend, guaranteeing the wizard would have no further concerns about fire-based attacks during this battle.  He then rapidly cast a chain lightning spell upon both Djop and Grandalvass, seeing how badly they'd been affected by Finoula's pass through them in lightning-bolt form.  No sooner had the electrical assault finished than Mudpie stepped up, slamming a granite-hard fist into Djop, causing him to stagger and sway on his feet.  Malrin and Darrien finished off the heavily-wounded monk, peppering him with arrows.Hagan cast a polar ray at the massive lizardfolk he could see approaching from behind Finoula, but Virmillious's protective spell against cold effects helped mitigate the damage he took from the spell.  He stepped to the side and cast a chain lightning spell of his own, testing to see whether Finoula could handle incoming electrical attacks as well as she could dish them out; an arc from the spell struck the pit fiend standing deeper in the cavern network.  And while Finoula was still reeling from the spell assault, a fist suddenly materialized - or so it seemed - directly into her face as the unseen efreet popped back into view, his invisibility spell broken by his sudden attack.Almost instinctively, Finoula used another daily charge from her amulet and blasted through the efreet as a bolt of living lightning, putting her back over by Gilbert at the end of her arc.  Gilbert, in the meantime, was under attack by Grandalvass, the half-dragon's sharp greataxe swinging at the wizard's fiendish form.  Binkadink raced up and brought his glaive to bear against Grandalvass, the weapon's greater reach coming in handy against a foe of this size.  Surprisingly, the "pit fiend" took a step back out of combat and cast a vampiric touch spell through a quickened spectral hand, slaying a startled Grandalvass who had been looking forward to going toe-to-toe against a pit fiend, allegedly one of the more powerful denizens of the Lower Planes.Mudpie shifted targets to Virmillius, swinging at the sorcerer with his fists.  Hagan cast another chain lightning spell - it was a very popular choice this battle, it seemed - striking Virmillius and his efreet minion and slaying the latter.  The loss of his wish-granting slave seemed to cause the lizardfolk sorcerer more pain than if he'd taken the additional damage himself.  He turned to face Hagan, eager to make the half-orc pay for his effrontery - and then was taken out in a way he never could have anticipated: Gilbert, towering over the others in his pit fiend form, grabbed up Binkadink and threw him across the chamber.  The gnome held his glaive out straight before him and yelled in glee as he became a living missile, the blade of his weapon piercing straight through the scale-covered body of the half-dragon sorcerer nearly four times his own size.Virmillious was the last of the enemies to fall; Malrin quickly cast a mass cure light wounds spell on all but Finoula, who had already chugged down a healing potion to close up her own wounds.  Fortunately, much of the lizardfolks' damage had been absorbed by the stoneskin spells covering most of the heroes, applied by Hagan and Gilbert before they had teleported into the caverns in the first place."Dragon down in lower cavern," Gilbert told his trusty familiar.  "Peek down there, but be careful: don't want you dipping into lava by mistake!"  The earth elemental sank slowly into the floor of the central cavern, his senses alert for the sudden change in temperature indicating the imminent arrival into a magma pool.  Gilbert, in the meantime, scried upon him via his crystal ball.  The lower caverns were much simpler in shape: a central area, where Banelothlor lay sleeping, which had a natural ramp of sorts leading down into a pool of magma, no doubt the dragon's entry and exit point; a vast treasure cavern to the west, the floor covered with coins, gems, and various other treasures; and a smaller cave section of its own to the east littered with the bones of prior meals.  Upon getting the nod of approval from Gilbert, Hagan cast a teleport spell that sent the group to the treasure cave.Darrien began the combat by firing no less than five arrows at the dragon's sleeping bulk in rapid succession; the attack managed to bring Banelothlor to full alertness but didn't seem to inflict any great harm on him, despite the Arachnibow's ability to infuse its arrows with cold energy.  Malrin sent a flurry of arrows at the dragon as well, but hers didn't even have the cold enhancement that Darrien's did.  As Banelothlor got to his feet and turned to face the heroes, he found Finoula running up to face him, Tahlmalaera glancing off the scales of his foreleg without piercing his skin at all.  This was a non-fortuitous start to combat for the Kordovian heroes!Binkadink managed to tip the scales a bit in their favor when his magical glaive pierced through the dragon's scales to bring a line of blood trickling from his leg.  But Banelothlor hardly even noticed either the gash or the pain it had caused; his focus was on the pit fiend accompanying the interlopers intruding into his lair.  This was by far the most powerful of his current opponents, the dragon realized, so he brought his full fury against the red-skinned devil.  However, despite the sharpness of the dragon's claws and teeth and the immense power behind his attacks, very little of the potential damage made it past Gilbert's inherent toughness in pit fiend form or his stoneskin spell still in effect.With the dragon this close before him, Gilbert decided to lean into his pit fiend nature and try to bite him - after all, pit fiends had impressive fangs and tusks capable of spreading both venom and disease; he might as well put them to the test.  Sadly, this particular test met with failure, as the wizard's bite failed to penetrate through the dragon's thick neck scales.Banelothlor's lungs filled up with air, an obvious precursor to spewing out a sheet of flames.  Mudpie quickly sank into the stone floor, careful not to go too deep and hit the pool of magma leading into the cave.  The others quickly tried taking the dragon down, Darrien with more of his ineffective arrows; Hagan with a polar ray spell that inflicted a great amount of damage to the fiery dragon; Finoula with the last daily use of her amulet of lightning, allowing her to blast her way through Banelothlor's bulk and end up behind him, out of the zone of attack from his breath weapon.  Malrin didn't even bother attacking, realizing her arrows were all but useless against the red dragon; she wisely scooted around a corner of the treasure cave where she was shielded from the dragon's wrath by a stone wall.Binkadink, standing directly before Banelothlor, got in a couple of powerful strikes with his glaive before being engulfed in flames; fortunately, the magic of the red dragonhide armor he wore (armor, he realized, guaranteed to infuriate the red dragon he was fighting) absorbed some but not all of the burning damage.  The others took quite a bit of damage from the flames - Hagan, Wezhley, and Darrien, at least, for while Gilbert was in the path of the blast his pit fiend form shielded him from all harm from fire.And then Gilbert cast what he thought of as his "spoilsport" spell: an Otto's irresistible dance which, if it overcame a creature's natural resistance to spells, caused it to dance about like a fool, incapable of doing anything else.  Hoping he'd get past Banelothlor's natural defenses against attack spells, the wizard whooped in delight as he saw the dragon begin to caper about, a look of complete puzzlement on his draconic face, replaced almost immediately by blazing anger.Seeing the dragon would be unable to do anything else but dance for a bit, Malrin stepped back around the corner into Banelothlor's range of vision, and slowly, deliberately, unfolded the bag of holding from her belt.  Then, dropping to her knees, she started scooping up the dragon's treasure and dropping it into her extradimensional bag.It had the effect the druid had hoped for.  "NOOOOOOO!" howled Banelothlor, as he could no nothing to stop the nimble elf from stealing his treasures right in front of him.  It's doubtful he even noticed when Mudpie rose up from the stone floor directly beneath the dancing dragon to punch him in the gut with a rock-hard fist.  But Banelothlor had already been metaphorically gut-punched by the blatant theft of his precious hoard while powerless to stop it.Hagan cast another polar ray spell at the red dragon, coating his red scales with white frost.  Darrien continued to shoot his arrows; they did little - if any - damage but the ranger was determined to try to get one of them to pierce one of the dragon's eyes.  Finoula brought her sword down at the dragon's tail, slicing a gash between his thick scales.  Binkadink continued striking the dragon with his glaive, each hit piercing deep into his flesh and drawing fresh blood.  But none of the heroes was hurting Banelothlor as much as was Malrin, who now made an exaggerated show of picking up a valuable gem, cooing over its beauty, and then dropping it into the opening of her bag of holding.  Banelothlor roared in impotent fury, still dancing along.Finally, almost out of sheer pity, Gilbert slew the dancing dragon with a maximized cone of cold spell he'd been saving for an emergency.  "Guess Kordovia stick with Clauguthrax," the "pit fiend" informed Banelothlor as the red dragon died, his scales covered in ice.  Finally, in death, his body stopped the ridiculous prancing about he'd been forced to endure and he toppled over on his side."How that treasure looking?" asked Gilbert, reverting back to his human form now that there was no need for the combat capabilities of a pit fiend."Massive!" announced Malrin.  "Castillan's going to freak that he's missing out on another big payday!"  She passed the bag of holding over to Finoula and let her fellow elf take over the treasure-gathering operation while the druid cast healing spells on those who had been burned by the dragon's gout of flame.  She started with Wezhley, whose fur hand been badly singed and the flesh beneath it burned to a back crust.  "That's why I want to keep you behind sometimes," explained Hagan to his familiar as Malrin's healing spells caused his burnt skin to return to its normal color and his fur to thicken back to a lustrous brown.  Feeling much better, Wezhley cuddled up against the half-orc's neck while Hagan took his turn to be healed by the druid's spells."Finally remembered to use shapechange spell to actually change shape," muttered Gilbert.  He'd only cast the spell upon him once before and then forgotten to use it once it was active."And you put it to good use," Binkadink added.  "We'll have to remember that maneuver where you fling me at an enemy: that was fun!"- - -I went rather heavy on the treasure for this adventure, even by Gargantuan red dragon standards, in part to make up for the total lack of treasure from the previous adventure.  (I don't always ensure there's treasure in every adventure, as sometimes it wouldn't make sense for there to be a level-appropriate amount of treasure hanging around.  But I do try to make sure it evens out over the long run.)And Malrin leveled up to 13th at the end of this adventure.  It's getting such that Logan runs her as a matter of course, rather than pass her around among the players from one adventure to the next (like we did with Ingebold).  It makes sense, given he's the only player at the table who isn't otherwise preoccupied with choosing spells for their own primary character.  (Well, other than Harry, but he's already running a spellcaster.)- - -T-shirt worn:  Had this adventure taken place on a game session by itself, I'd have no doubt worn my green dragon shirt to represent Clauguthrax.  But since we played this on the same day as "Salt in the Wounds" I was still wearing my white "Walking Dead" T-shirt.</blockquote>

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