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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Dragon" data-source="post: 3933296" data-attributes="member: 1115">Heavy FightingA brief update...The party has decided to attack the ruins of Citadel Rashemar and try to free Jasmina's imprisoned mother who was supposed to be held as a prisoner in the citadel.Most parts of the citadel lay in ruins, except the main building is intact but bears the signs of a siege. The new inhabitants fortified the building further.The party, now having the silver dragon Estanala as an ally (she wants to avenge the death of her partner, Alanor), traveled via Windwalk to the citadel.The warlock and the ranger (both invisible) carefully inspected the building from the outside by peering through arrow slits and windows. In addition, the hathrans gave the party an old map of the citadel before its destruction. The two found out that only one stairway leads down to the dungeon and about  eight war trolls and two dozen orcs are scattered in the building. In addition, two guys in black armor, possibly clerics, and a hill giant were found.The two scouts returned and a plan was made. To avoid an escape of the clerics and the incoming of hostile reinforcements, a good timing of actions was needed. The plan was to block the stairway with a Wall of Force and a Silence so that no alarm could be raised and no troops could join the fight from the dungeon. After these two spells were silently cast, the attack should immediately begin and focus on the two guys in black armor. The group was supposed to separate: The silver dragon Estanala should attack the trolls and orcs on the roof, the rest of the party should use Windwalk to get into the room with the two enemy men.The plan was executed, but the guys in black (a cleric level 21 of Tiamat and a HD 15 blackguard) plus one wartroll proved to be tough foes. Especially the cleric (I still had the old documents of Alvin of the Sades, see my other post) did his best to stop the intruders. But he could not stop them and was finally slain when he tried to escape.Now the party worked their way through the building. They had 20 rounds to reach the room with the stairway before the Wall of Force would vanish. The wartrolls put up bitter resistance and dealt lots of damage, but the group acted as a team, and all went well.When they entered the room with the stairway, 18 rounds had passed. The warlock had warned before the fight that there is a magical aura in the room, but that was obviously already forgotten when the first adventurer entered the room (and activated a silent alarm... <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" /> ).The party searched the whole building and learned from a captured orc that a shadow dragon and a powerful witch (the durthan Chaul) rule the place. The orc also told them that there is a new prisoner, a grey dragon, who was caught be the 'old man'.Estanala was quite interested about the grey dragon, she assumed that it may be a steel dragon, or, quite unlikely, a time dragon. She thinks that time dragons are extinct for several thousand years...The adventurers decided to enter the dungeon because no troops have come from there and a surprise still seems to be possible. More trolls awaited the party at the end of the stairway, but they were killed easily. A Symbol of Insanity proved to be more dangerous, because it affected the alienist and the ranger. The ranger almost killed Jasmina before she could undo the damage with a Mass Heal. Estanala assumed the form of a moon elf to get along in the dungeon but thus lost much of her power.When the party entered a desecrted temple of Mystra in the dungeon, a lich (wiz 13/acm 1) and his undead bodyguards (troll and orc zombies) plus a cleric of Malar awaited the party. Because the group rolled a low initiative, the enemies (who had readied their actions) greeted them with some nasty spells and killed the warlock in round 2. A hard fight begun, and the lich ordered his troops to 'prevent the adventurers to free the dragon'.On the altar stood a gray statue of a large dragon, holding a strange staff. The lich was quite tough and was well prepared for a fight due to his alarm spell. However, his fate was sealed when Jasmina cast an Antimagic Field and positioned herself close to the lich...When all hostile opposition was eliminated, the party examined the statue. It depicts a slender, athletic dragon that even Estanala had not heard of. The warmage used his scroll stone to flesh on the statue. It was transformed into a gray dragon with wings black on their upper side, orange eyes, and a very bad mood. He suspected the adventurers being the reason for his imprisonment and demanded that all party members drop their weapons before he would be willing to talk. When the warmage ignored the order, the dragon used his 'staff' (a huge disintegrator gun) and fired once on the warmage. Now the warmage sheathed his weapons and the situation calmed a bit (also because everybody made relatively good diplomacy checks).The dragon (see stats below) checked everybody with Detect Evil, and as no evil guys were around, he willing answered the questions. He introduced himself as Arulantras, time dragon, officer of the police forces from the world of Maginellic, and given the order to capture or kill the shadow dragon Antaran Black Star (fugitive murder and sentenced to death). The party and Estanala were puzzeled about the strange dragon, but it seems that he is willing to cooperate and provide informations on a powerful foe.The adventurers explained what has happened, and why they hunt the shadow dragon. Arulantras in return gladly helped with informations and warned the party that if the shadow dragon has traveled to Toril with his star ship, all civilized lands are threatened to be destroyed by the ship's fire power.To underline his good will, Arulantras used his time hop and time slip power to undo the death of the warlock (he died because of three failed saves...the player was allowed to re-roll these once).The group asked Arulantras if he wants to join the party and the dragon agreed happily. As the spell power of the adventurers was depleted, a retreat to a save place was planed. On the way out, a young human sorceress and an old orcish man tried to stop the party. Arulantras recognized the voice of the man, a person he has heard before and that ordered him to be imprisoned. He killed to orc by aging him to death, then he shot the sorceress. The party was impressed, since Arulantras' quick action avoided a lengthy combat.The group found shelter in a cave that Jasmina knew from earlier days. The alienist cast Private Sanctum and a quiet night followed.Arulantras tried to contact his ship, the Immortal Princess (orbiting Toril) and his crew, but he received no answer. He was quite irritated, but decided to follow his goal, to arrest the shadow dragon, first.</blockquote>

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