Session 20 Recap

## Session 20: The Star of Timmorran, Dandy's down, Machine Go boom.

### Locations:

   The floor of The Fracture, a vast crevasse located nearby the Tanglewood Forest

### PCs:

Dandy, Goldie and Arik *(Peanut, Gar and Tivram were handled as ‘advantages’ and got to take some important actions by being ‘activated’ for an action)*

### NPCs:

* Dulan (Goldie's cousin, a shady dwarf mercenary always on the look-out for a dodgy opportunity)
* *(Unnamed High-Ranking Dragonkin Mage)* (Believed dead as he dived into the fissure, but who knows?)
* *(Unnamed High-Ranking Dragonkin Warrior)* (This guy was a bit of a bad-ass and he almost certainly survived)
* Hippa (Guardian Druid who uses crows as familiars)
* The Turtle King (A forest guardian spirit. Not a turtle. Not a king.)

**The Previous Episode was a mostly unrelated interlude involving two tangentially-involved characters, this story continued directly on from Here...**

## And Now...

   Dandy uses stealth to get into cover close to the machine while the guards were away investigating the fake Dragon-lich. Meanwhile, Arik and Goldie both performed magics to create distractions/obscurement - but both utilized the sulfur in the air and the spells reacted unexpectedly. The dragon skull which was meant to be set ablaze instead exploded causing an expanding ring of hot ash to cascade outward, affecting everyone in the lower chasm (accept those close to the spell center).

While the enemy recovered from the spell, Arik took the escaped prisoners to the cliff and used magic to get them safely up to the next level. Goldie and Peanut got in close to the machine, ready to strike the magi when Dandy moved.

Peanut took out the first mage with a well aimed shot, but the second one was resistant to Dandy’s sling. Goldie attacked the next mage with claws as Dandy made it up the machine to the gem at the top. The mage resisted Goldie's attack but ended up succumbing to a love charm from Arik. Lastly, the 3rd Mage was knocked out off of the machine by Goldie, but flew away to alert others. Realizing time was short, Dandy started to frantically try and free the Star of Timmoran from the machine but was knocked aside by wards placed onto the mechanism. Taking a second attempt, she took time to look for a structural weakness and started working at the 2 clamps holding the mechanism in place. An arrow struck the machine, just barely missing Dandy as she loosened the connections, but she ignored the danger and kept working on it.

At this point, Goldie severed the cables connecting the ‘soul battery’ part of the machine to the main component. Before she could finish, however, she was discovered by a guard. Fortunately for her, it turned out to be her cousin. They argued for a minute, with neither really wanting to fight.Eventually, he backed away, but still called out an alarm before running away. Arik knocked him down and disarmed him, but he didn’t want to fight and just asked to be let go. Arik obliged him to deal with bigger problems.

Dandy managed to finally get the Star loose, but as she did, she was struck down and fell from the machine. Goldie tried to break her fall, but both ended up sprawled on the ground. With the Star gone, the machine began rumbling and shaking violently, venting vast amounts of sulfur into the air and shaking the ground. Goldie and Arik were able to grab the unconscious Dandy and make a run for it as fresh, new fissures began erupting forth all around.

Once they were away from the machine, they took a moment to gather their breath. Arik revived Dandy with a healing spell while Goldie tried to slow down the guards and Dragonkin following them with a wall of flame. Unfortunately, While they did this, a group of mercenaries moved into place to block their escape, having come down the lift to cut them off.

The bag with the glowing Star was handed off to Gar, but before he could take full ownership of it a powerful spell nearly wrenched the bag from his arms. Looking up, they saw yet another Dragonkin mage hovering above them, focusing his magic on capturing the artifact. Based on his appearance and the quality of his attire, he was a very high-ranking agent (if not the overseer of the entire project. Arik attempted to distract him with a thrown dagger and Goldie launched a small ball of fire while Dandy and Gar sought to wrest control of the bag. The dagger had little effect and it managed to evade most of Goldie's fireball, however, it was struck in the wing, forcing it to land.

With the Dragonkin Overseer grounded, Arik and Gar pressed their attack, but found the Overseer, while hard pressed, was capable of resisting their combined onslaught. Arik did, however, manage to get one good shot in, causing a deep wound in the Dragon-Mage's uninjured wing. Whatever the outcome, it wouldn't be flying any time soon. Sensing an opportunity while the Overseer was beset, Dandy grabbed a spare bag and loaded it with a suit of scalemail she had found earlier. Goldie enchanted the armour to glow and Dandy bluffed the Dragon-Mage that the Star was in the bag. She then tossed it into a nearby fissure. "Go, fetch!"

The trick worked and the Dragon-Mage dived after the backpack. A minute later, the archer who had nearly killed Dandy dove in after him. By this point, the ground was quaking in earnest and it was becoming clear that the entire floor was going to collapse. The party continued advancing towards the cliff, easily pushing past the now-distracted mercenaries. When they reached the cliff, Arik drained the last of his magic to create one more magical platform and get them to safety. Before they could get more than a foot or two off of the ground, a powerful looking Dragonkin Warrior stepped out of the smoke, grabbed Tivram and yanked them off the platform. Tiv held zir own for a few seconds,while Gar prepared for a leap attack and jumped into the fray. The two battled the burly Dragon-Warrior, but he proved tough enough to resist lethal blows even from Gar’s cursed blade. Eventually, Dandy threw a bag of bone powder onto the Dragon-Warrior's head, blinding him momentarily, which allowed Gar to lift off, catch a rope and climb back up.

The ground began a total collapse, and Dandy managed to warn the Dragonkin in time to for it to survive and fly away (‘look out behind you!’). As they reached the 2nd level of the chasm, they saw the ground of the lower floor in total collapse, and the thousands of blackened and damaged Dragon Hybrid eggs below. Some (those close to the surface) looked half transformed into healthy eggs - the magic of the machine had been clearly reviving them.

As they exited, a crow came and lead them away into the forest, where they were met by Hippa and ‘The Turtle King’ who escorted them back to the Heart Glade via magical tunnel.

### Continued on Session 21...

*(Game ended abruptly there, so an epilogue will be part of next session)*

*(btw- I'm pretty sure Tivram's Aspect was activated, so they got to do something cool. I just can't recall what that was right now)*

20xp

(280xp Total)