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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Dragon" data-source="post: 3831760" data-attributes="member: 1115">"Warfare is the art of deceit."-Sun Tzu_________________________After some discussion about what to do next (options: visit Citadel Rashemar, search the Cloud Ray, attack the Shadow Masters in Telflamm, attack the Durthans, get more informations...), the party decided to get more informations about the Aspect of Tiamat and the Cloud Ray.The party knows the great wyrm White Dragon Storm of the Winter who resides in the Icerim Mountains north of Rashemen. I have to go back in the story to explain why the party tried to contact the dragon (I have not posted this part because it happened at the very beginning of the campaign, shortly after the Shadow Masters' first attacks). -----------Along with the Shadow Masters, another group was observing the party: the church of Tiamat. The adventurers did not keep it a secret that the tempest was pregnant with a half-drgaon baby, and this attracted the curiosity of Tiamat's servants. One of them, a half-dragon (white) half-giant (frost) frenzied berserker, was ordered to keep an eye on the tempest and try to kidnap her, if the opportunity arises. He loosely worked together with the Shadow Masters, but for the most time, he kept a low profile (using a ring to adapt to the townsfolk of Two Stars) and observed the group. But after the Shadow Masters had burned down the party's house in Two Stars, the angry adventurers spotted one guy how behaved somewhat oddly when the townsfolk tried to extinguish the fires. The monk grappled and attacked the guy after some short questions which gave little informations. Now the berserker lost his calm attitude and a hard fight erupted. Raging in anger, he killed the tempest (despite being ordered not to do so), disabled the monk (he cut of his right leg) and forced the dwarf to flee via Dimension Door. Before the alienist was able to send the berserker (who was at about -500 hp at that time, mainly by the ranger's well placed arrows) into a Maze to cool down and die, he activated his bracelet of friends and called his mother for help. This was the White Dragon Storm of the Winter. But she came to late, nevertheless, she tought the party a lesson, and the fight continued for some rounds, almost resulting in the death of the alienist. However, she offered an armistice to know what happened. The party agreed and learned that the dragon strongly disliked to be called by her son and help him out of something he has messed up totally. In addition, the relationship between the dragon and her son is quite bad, mainly because the half-dragon is a devout servant of Tiamat, a goddess the Storm of the Winter does not like.But still the half-dragon was her son, and so she raised him again - in front of the party and the citizens. She gave to the party a magic ring as a payback for the killed tempest. Then she and her son left town and headed north.The party called Jasmina for help. She was able to convince the hathrans to resurrect the tempest and the baby.-----------Remembering the dragon and its relatively respectful behaviour, the group arranged a meeting to ask the dragon about the Aspect of Tiamat and its possible plans. The dragon received some payment, and she willingly answered most questions. The adventurers learned that the Aspect is gathering troops at remote areas in northern Rashemen. The dragon has no interest in interfering with the goddess' plans and left the troops alone. She told the party about the three areas where the troops gather exactly (eastern Rashemen: Endless Wastes, north: Ring of Gray Flames, west: northern shores of Lake Ashane).She also mentioned that every troop is commanded by a powerful creature and together with the party's knowledge, she assumed that every commander is a half-dragon, her son now being one of them. She warned her son before that she will not help him again if keeps his faith in Tiamat. Now she told the party that she has no problems when the party kills her son again - forever. The other commander is a mage named Talaran (the party knows the name, but not the guy), the third commander is unknown. The troops consist of tuigans, narfellians, orcs, half-orcs, gnolls, tieflings, lower and average demons, and other various monsters (e.g., dragonnes, land sharks, young evil dragons (green, white), ogres, and some giants), every troop consisting now of about 500 creatures. The dragon also knows some important things about the Aspect, e.g., that she is able to cast a Gate to call for powerful creatures and move her troops quickly from place to place. The party decided to observe one camp secretly (hey! they've learned something  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ). Jasmina cast a Chain of Eyes on the warlock who tried to intercept a patrol near the camp and place the spell on one of the patrol's horses. But the transfer failed (I let the player roll up the save for the horse and he rolled a 20  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> ). A short fight begun, a dragonne arrived, but the warlock successfully held his ground: he only killed the dragonne and let the badly wounded warriors and their horses escape back to the troop camp (he didn't know that the transfer failed). When he returned to his friends, Jasmina told him that the action was a failure. But now the alienist proposed to send his rat familiar into the camp and deliver a Chain of Eyes to a horse. This was successfully done, but for the rest of the day, little happened. But in the next morning, the Aspect of Tiamat personally arrived and instructed his troops. The party was not able to read his lips, but at least every party member was able to see through the horse's eyes (the Net creature that saved the alienist in the prison secretly 'linked' the party with Jasmina). Then the Aspect opened a Gate and sent his army to the Plane of Shadows. The Aspect stayed on the Material Plane. The troops waited. After a few hours, a gargantuan Shadow Dragon appeared. He talked with the commander, a half-dragon (green) tiefling - Talaran the wizard. The party could at least read the lips of the half-dragon and learned that the troops are preparing a raid to gather food and treasure. Everything else is prepared...The Shadow Dragon then created a minor illusion of the little castle near Lake Murthil and a cave nearby. He simply told Talaran - unkown to the party - that he will now move to this area to shut the trap for the Aspect of Bahamut. The Shadow Dragon has visited the area the day before in a polymorphed form and found the dragons there. Knowing that he is not able to deal alone with two Silver Drgaons, he has to wait for the timely arrival of the Aspect of Tiamat.This cave is the camp where Alanor, Estanala, and the baby wait for the return of the party...As long as the alienist was in the camp, he protected everyone with a Private Sanctum from scying magic. However, the party has left the camp three days before, and the spell was not renewed. Both dragons are not capable to cast the spell. And the Aspect of Tiamat cast a Circle Dance once every morning to look for the baby, so it was now only a matter of time when she would get a result...Quite panicked after realising what that illusion depicts, the party used two Gates to get to the camp - just in time to see the arrival of the Aspect of Tiamat and the Shadow Dragon...-----------------Background: The Aspect of Tiamat knows the cave from visits when she started to built up her army some weeks earlier. She made her last secret visit after Karelam attacked the nearby castle and slaughtered the inhabitants, hoping to find some refugees she could question. But the cave was empty. The Shadow Dragon: The Shadow Dragon calls himself Antaran Black Star. He is a killer, contracted by various evil organisations to remove 'unpleasant creatures'. His last place was  technologically advanced world called Maginellic (now inhabited by a mixture of humanoid races: humans, elves, gnomes, and others, but its first intelligent inhabitants are Time Drakes (a slightly modified version from WotC's web supplement), now only a minority after the arrival of space travellers centuries ago). There, Antaran was arrested before he could kill the members of a trade company. While the Time Drakes are a minority, they still have power over law and order on Maginellic, and most elite police forces are made up of Time Drakes.The Aspect of Tiamat searched a way to destroy her counterpart, the Aspect of Bahamut (Alanor). Tiamat herself provided the information to her aspect that Antaran is a suitable help, and as his execution was under preparation, it would be likely that he is willing to cooperate. Using her Gate-power, she helped Antaran to escape from prison and get onto his star ship. After organising a contract, Antaran traveled with his ship to Toril. The ship is fully armed and possibly a more serious threat to Faerûn than the Aspect of Tiamat and her plans...However, the Time Drakes sent one of her most skilled hunters after him...</blockquote>

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