25/02/2020 - Delving the Dragon's Domain

## **S(Still)TL;DR**

* Left cathedral, entered house, killed eye-thing

## **TL;DR**

* Upon recovering from the dragon’s initial barrage, they had a polite chat and it threatened to incinerate them all if they didn’t leave its domain (the city)
* They left promptly, but decided the dragon wasn't very observant and snuck back into the manor house, triggering several traps on the way in
* Multiple groups explored different rooms within, discovered a few items, and hacked a door to death
* Narko  and Ash  were attacked by a spectator and nearly killed, but the others rushed in and stabilised them before casting it into the ab-eye-ss

## **Draconic Dialogue**

“WHO DARES ENTER MY DOMAIN?”, boomed the dragon, quite racistly. “Hi, I’m Gimble !”, chirped up the keen gnome. After a few minutes of discussion with the dragon, it was decided that in order to avoid being ‘burnt to a crisp’, they should make a prompt exit from the city. Rocky  hurriedly ushered everyone away and Bayul  kept his shield in a guard position, as Narko  cast one final glare towards the crimson creature before sassily strutting away.

As soon as they were outside the city and clear of the beast’s gaze, an intense discussion began. Ves  revealed that she knew dragons typically heralded from the dragonspire mountains (possibly unsurprisingly) far to the south, and others raised concerns about the proximity of the island to Ilbidor  itself. Gimble  began to lay down a well-reasoned hypothesis about the dragon and island being illusions but soon led himself into an existential crisis instead. Eventually, Azurial  chipped in that he’d had many interactions with such creatures. It was odd, he continued, that such a notoriously ferocious creature should simply let them go with naught but threats. It was concluded that the whole saga was bizarre, and that clearly this ‘dragon’ was not very observant anyway; Bayul  affirmed that he’d barely even watched them leave the city. They decided to risk its wrath and go back in.

Before a plan had been fully formed, Rocky  got bored of all the chatter and hoisted Gimble  up onto his back before sneaking off back into the city. Everyone shared a look that was becoming all too common and crouched low in pursuit of the duo. Merric  managed to pick the lock of the wrought-iron gate, though only Gimble  was spared the blast of arcane energy that erupted from the floor, his small frame shielded by Rocky’s  bulk. Ves  detected two remaining traps within the grounds and everyone became extremely cautious in trying to avoid them. Narko  tried to trigger the traps from a distance with his longbow, whilst Rocky  attempted a similar thing but by throwing half a rotten 'chicken' (giant eagle) carcass. Eventually, Gimble  strolled directly up to the front door and was only spared from being impaled by two crossbow bolts by his height (or lack thereof). Seeing him trigger and survive this trap, everyone else wandered over sheepishly.

## **Door Destruction**

After a further period of time spent debating the thickness of various weapons to slide into the gap in the door and generally trying to be clever about it, they decided to “smash it in”. Narko  reared back on his hind legs with a mighty cry clove a hoof deep into the rugged wood, succeeding in splintering the planks, though the hinges held firm. Aligning her dead-centre of the stubborn door, Rocky  drew Rosie back in a sweeping arc and struck home with an enormous crash, causing it to buckle inwards violently. Once inside they were presented with a grand foyer. The large walls were punctuated by 3 doors and a majestic double staircase leading to a balcony. Naturally, they split up to search for clues.

## **Door Destruction 2.0**

Still frustrated at being held up for so long by an inanimate block of wood, Gimble  and Rocky  just absolutely laid into the first door they saw. It swung open to reveal a large dining room but they barely even registered this as the red-mist descended. Over several minutes they turned a once-proud wooden boi into something a cat might enjoy emptying its bowels on. Bayul  rolled his eyes and accompanied Ves  as she made for the right-hand door. Inside, they found a large space that resembled a classroom and had walls stacked out with books. They enjoyed a quiet few minutes perusing the books, found a cheeky one about fighting/battle tactics in Loxodon and some that neither of them could read. Meanwhile, Narko  and Ash  wandered straight forwards and found themselves in a large extended gallery.

## **Ocular Assault**

Wandering down the corridor of portraits, Narko  and Ash  were both shocked to see reflections of themselves, shimmering slightly, in one of the frames. Suddenly, five extra eyes appeared from behind the image and merged into a single entity; 4 small eyestalks sat atop an amorphous floating blob on which a fifth, larger eye blinked menacingly. Both felt every part of their physical forms immediately freeze in place. Narko  managed to temporarily shrug off the creature’s magical paralysis and capitalised on it, striking a deep gash into the central blob. However, as his swing followed through, he could not help but cry out in animalistic terror as he met the gaze of the evilest of the little eyes.

Hearing his shriek, everyone else rushed to the aid of the two. By the time Gimble’s  little legs carried him into the gallery, both adventures were prone and lifeless on the floor and the creature was halfway through pulling Ashtai  into the mirror itself. He managed to rescue the inert monk in a show of raw strength, as Rocky  came in shouting at Narko  to “get up you stupid horse!!”. Which worked. Ves  assisted the prone centaur and Bayul  could only watch through the crowded corridor as Merric , Maxwell and Rocky  gallantly engaged the many-eyed monstrosity. Eventually, through a combination of their efforts and that of the woozy but valiant Narko , the mirror finally cracked and fell to the floor around Ash’s groggy form.

Everyone began to relax, but Bayul’s  attuned battle senses tingled as the googly fiend appeared in yet another portrait. Driven by the frustration of being previously trapped, and the peril the party had experienced, he barged through and chopped his battle-axe violently into the image. The edge bit sharply into the main body of the beast, and while his trunk grasped its form he used a free hand to pluck off each of the eyestalks in turn, thus abruptly ending the encounter.

The more naturally- and magically-inclined of the group identified the creature as a ’spectator’, and it was generally agreed that a brief rest was in order.