Session 21 & 22

* Small Love Temple

Dawnsmoor

* A large field outside the city, across the river where The Great Travelling Show has set up camp.

### NPCs:

* Baron Katrin (Baron of Trast, known as 'the Willful'. Murdered by persons unknown, with suspicion falling on her wife. She is succeeded by her son)
* Zorsha (Mysterious Leader of the Great Travelling Show, has a sinister secret)
* Bliz (Gnomish Tinker and second-in-command of the Great Travelling Show)
* Darem (Former Stablehand for Earl Castigan, now married to his daughter and heir)
* Lady Taffney Castigan (Daughter of Earl Castigan, eloped with her lover, Dalam)

**Previously...**

## And Now...

The PCs depart the Tanglewood and head North-East towards Dawnsmoor.

Before they reach Dawnsmoor, though, they decide to stop off at Desire Downs, where a small, but growing cult based on principles of Romantic Love has their Church - The Temple of Small Love. They are welcomed warmly, and stay for several days. While there, they check up on Darem and Lady Taffney Castigan (See Session 10). They also take the opportunity for Arik to learn more about the Cult and the Censer he carries, while the others keep themselves busy perusing the Temple's library, helping out where they can with minor jobs around the Temple Grounds, and helping the people in the nearby hamlet.

While they're doing this, the heroes hear word that Baron Katrin has died and that her wife is missing and suspected of being involved. The PC's are sure this relates to prophecy and try to find her, heading towards Dawnsmoor. Before they can enter the city proper, however, they notice 'The Great Travelling Show' is in the process of setting up camp in a series of fields across the river from the city proper, so they stop off there first.

They meet Zorsha the Resplendent who runs the Show, but before they can talk for long, her runic shard begins to resonate with the Star Arik is carrying. She shows great interest, but Arik get worried and bails out. At this, Zorsha mind controls Tivram into telling all the details about the Star. In desperation, Goldie grabs Tiv to escape. A brief chase begins before Zorsha teleports to top of a nearby hill, where she cuts off Arik's escape. Slowly, she stretches out a hand which begins to assume the form of a scaled, Draconic claw. Her eyes blaze with yellow-orange flame. She insists that Arik hand over the Star.

When Arik refuses , she delivers him a powerful backhand.

Gar and Dandy see this, having reached the foot of the hill. Dandy attempts to distract Zorsha's attention with a sling stone, but it bounces harmlessly off her and she ignores it. Realizing how badly overpowered they are, Goldie runs straight for the bridge across the river leading into Dawnsmoor.

Arik, using the Star to channel his magic, flings Zorsha from him with mystical force, pushing her away and down the hill. She tumbles about 25', struggling to find her footing and begins a slow, inexorable transformation.

Still under the sway of Zorsha's magic, Tivram attempts to use magic to slow her allies, but it fails. By this time, Zorsha's henchmen from the Great Travelling Show begin to close in, and engage members of the party. Cursing these distractions, Zorsha attempts to create a magical barrier around her and Arik, but the spell fails as Gar closes in and engages. Arik joins in as the two combine their efforts, but she seems far more resilient to damage than her appearances would indicate. Tivram begins to shake loose of the mind control as Zorsha's control over zir begins to slip under the onslaught.

    The henchmen attempt to engage with Tivram, but even with zir perceptions clouded, ze is more than capable of overwhelming all of them. Seeing this, and becoming increasingly pressed by the combination of attacks from Arik and Gar, Zorsha sees her control of the situation slipping from her grasp. Sensing her frustration, Goldie and Dandy begin to heap scorn on her, with Goldie mocking her spellcasting failures. This last taunt strikes home and Zorsha's frustration explodes into boiling rage as Zorsha BREATHES FIRE!

The side of the hill catches ablaze, as do many of the Henchmen, but most of the PCs manage to avoid it, except Arik, who took the brunt of it to spare his comrades. The surviving henchmen flee in terror as Dandy uses a blanket to smother the fire on Arik. For a second, everyone seems to be holding their breath until Gar breaks the stillness with a mighty blow from Fluffy. This manages to break the final threads of Zorsha's control as her fleshly body boils away to be replaced by the Form of a **Full-Sized Adult Dragon**!!!

A wave of primordial terror washes over everyone, driving away anyone still remaining who retreats it terror. Goldie manages to hold their composure in check long enough to launch a fire spell, but their fear is enough to render it ineffective. They turn and run after the others. as they retreat to the bridge to Dawnsmoor. One of Zorsha's henchmen, Bliz, a gnomish tinkerer they had encountered on the road between Vylenvale and Willow's Hill, approaches Arik and hands him a potion. He drinks it and becomes invisible.

Unable to find Arik, the Dragon goes into a frenzied rampage, flying around the area and blasting it with fire in a criss-cross pattern in the hopes of finding him. Arik conceals himself in the reeds of the bank as the others retreat under the bridge, unsure what to do. As waves of mystical terror emanating from the Dragon hammer them over and over again.

Frustrated by lack of success, the Dragon changes tactics, summoning a dozen fiery will-o'-the-wisps to scour the area looking for Arik. The wisps float out and begin searching. Slowly, several gravitate towards both Arik and the Bridge, while others range far and wide, with some reaching the city itself. As this happens, the city sends some of it’s soldiers towards the bridge. Goldie decides to destroy the bridge (with explosives) and prevent the soldiers from marching to their death. She fumbles and drops the black powder in the river. Tiv is able to rescue it, but it's too wet to use.   Alarms go off in the city and a chaotic panic starts.

Arik is able to dispel the wisps closest to him, but this only serves to attract the other to him. Since all the wisps are now headed in one general direction, the Dragon takes flight and begins to head toward the bridge. This causes panic in the city's soldiers, who each freeze on the spot or flee. In desperation, Arik uses the Star to cast again, dispelling all the wisps., at which point, the Dragon changes tactics and attacks the city.

Given a choice between a city on fire and fleeing, the heroes head to the encampment, through the raging fires left in the dragon’s wake. They can't fight the Dragon head-on, and so reason that Zorsha's old quarters may provide helpful knowledge or equipment which will help them defeat her. At first, the fires cut them off, but Goldie is able to divert it long enough for everyone to get through. Unfortunately, this taxes the last of their energy reserves and forcing them into their cat-form.

Reaching the main tent, they find Bliz in pitched magical combat with two of Zorsha’s other henchmen, each making use of a runic shard. The heroes intervene and quickly take down the surprised henches, recovering the following items of interest/clues:

* a blue runic shard,
* a beanbag hiding a magical compartment inside (didn’t find anything of much use from it),
* an approximately 200 year old journal written in Draconic. It details the location and abilities of many Runic shards, though it is largely unreadable because none of the PC’s are literate enough in Draconic,
* They note that one of the shards she owns and wears may have been used to allow her to assume a human form; The Dragon is her true form. This shard and may be still lost on the nearby fiery hill.

Unfortunately, while interesting in their own right, none of these items are 'instantly take down a dragon' magical, so the heroes gradually emerge to take in the scope of the impossible task ahead of them...

### Continued in Session 22...

*10xp*

*(290xp Total)*