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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 1269331" data-attributes="member: 114">A voice dripping with sibilant venom hisses from the darkened passageway. “I hunger for flesssh, I hunger for treasssure, I ssscent them both among you”. A green, scaly head on a sinuous neck becomes visible at the edge of their wizardlight, and then a horrible gout of acid is sprayed out towards them. The grace of Asura once more protects his chosen son, and Trajan avoids the worst of the acid. Anne-Marie and Bannon via their quick reactions duck wholly out of the way but Meliamne is badly scarred. The dragon stalks forth, the stench of chlorine hangs in the air and it surveys its handiwork.“A Juvenile” breaths Meliamne, “probably 30 summers old. Pretty smart already”.“Run” shouts Arilyn“No” Trajan replies, “it can chase us down. I’ve fought one of these things before” His mind flicks back to the last winter when they managed to track down a juvenile White on the cusp of entering young adulthood. It had nearly killed the entire party. Its body was no bigger than a man. This one was the size of a horse. And smarter. Press the attack before it can breath again, that’s the trick.The dragon leaps into the air and hovers, raising a storm of dust in the room.“Air spirits grant you the gift of flight” incants Arilyn, and she touches Trajan’s shoulder. He feels the familiar lightness of a fly spell, and he accelerates up towards the creature, scimitar poised. He feels claws rake him as he closes to strike, but he calls upon the mighty power of Asura to smite evil and his blade bites deeply. Meliamne unlimbers his bow and strikes up a martial ballad, “The Dragonslayers of the Direwood” to encourage his friends. Anne-Marie runs across the room and scales the small tower with the aim of getting close enough to the hovering dragon to engage it; Bannor follows her lead.Trajan and the dragon hang in mid air, swapping full attacks. Once again Trajan breaths thanks for the chain shirt of invulnerability which blunts the edge of the claw and wing attacks, although within a matter of seconds he is exhausted and more of the dragons blows draw blood.Arilyn casts magic missile spells and Meliamne uses his bow, but both to little effect.Anne-Marie is frustrated that the battle isn’t near enough to the tower she is on, so she jumps down to the shed, runs along the roof and launches herself into space, intent on grappling the flying dragons wings and bringing it down. Her plan nearly works, but the dragon manages to twist in the air and slap her down with one of its wings just before she reached it.Trajan is in a quandary – he is sorely wounded, but he knows that retreating from the dragon would incur a possibly fatal AoO from its long neck. Suddenly he hears the voice of Bannor below him.“Here, catch this!”Bannor had been following the fight from his vantage point, cursing at his inability to affect the flying dragon. Noticing Trajans wounds becoming more and more severe he vaults off the platform he was standing on, runs underneath the hovering dragon and his flying friend and tosses up his only potion of Cure Serious Wounds.Trajan snags the potion out of the air and the dragon surprisingly doesn’t take the opportunity to strike at him but folds it wings and plummets down and through the opening into the cavern which it first appeared from.The whole party charges after it, through a short passage and into its lair where it is cornered and wounded. It breathes a stream of acid which catches Bannor flatfooted and sears the flesh from his bones before their very eyes. As they press their attack both Trajan and Anne-Marie miss the beast and it retaliates brutally – a fearsome bite takes Trajan out and leaves him dying on the cavern floor. Its wings lash at Anne-Marie, setting her up for a critical slash from one of its claws which disables her (0 hit points). Meliamne whispers an ancient elvish incantation and looses his arrow…It flies true and catches the exhausted dragon right in the neck, causing it to slump forwards. With her last breath Anne-Marie staggers forward and makes a massive CDG attempt, driving her rapier between its scales and up into its black heart. As the creature shudders and expires the swordcoaster duellist also slumps forwards dying.Meliamne finds himself the only one breathing properly in the vicinity, as Arilyn is still hiding back in the large cavern. He quickly prepares some of his healing potions and treats Trajan and Anne-Marie, stabilising them and bringing them back to consciousness. There is nothing that can be done for the blackened bones of their companion Bannor though. In the short while he has spent with them he has been both brave and resourceful, and will be sadly missed.</blockquote>

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