The Eighteenth Session

After leaving Akanax with the caravan, the group traveled for 3 days without stopping. They passed a number of halfling villages, travelling on dirt roads through a number of grassy plains, small forests, and open areas. Finally coming to a thicker area of forest, they stopped to make camp. Yief saw a cardinal, and instead of impulsively chasing it, he asked Aoth about it, as Aoth had been teaching him to read and understand things more. Discovering it was called a cardinal, and that it was a common bird native to this area of Midfall, he bid the bird farewell as it flew into the forest.

After sitting around a campfire and sharing some scary stories, they heard a scream in the woods. Aoth, Yief, Shag, and Halrek went to investigate. Coming to a clearing, they found a woman leaning against a rock, bleeding out from a number of deep gashes all over her body. Aoth stopped the bleeding and brought her back to consciousness, at which point she introduced herself as Abella and said she needed help as her 9 year old son Tayleph had been taken by a group of beasts. She pointed in the direction she last saw them go before passing out from exhaustion, as she wasn't fully healed. Being safe from death, however, the group left her to look for her son.

Travelling into the forest, they found a point where the tracks stopped, but discovered that whoever made them had moved to the trees. Yief deduced that the claw marks resembled wolf claws, suggesting the beasts were werewolves. The group followed the marks in the trees until they split, at which point they decided to break into groups of two and flank the outermost lycans to work their way inward, as the marks appeared to split 5 ways.

Making noise as they ran through the woods, they alerted the two lycans that were hiding out to stand guard, who alerted the wolves in their base before surprise attacking Aoth and Yief. Yief and Halrek quickly defeated their assailant, at which point Yief noticed one had a familiar tattoo, that he remembered from a shrine in the cemetery district. Aoth ended up physically overpowering and breaking the neck of the lycan that attacked him, in an intense grapple that showcased an extreme feat of strength from Aoth. This weighed heavy on his mind, as it was the most drawn out and likely the most physically painful and terrifying death he had ever inflicted upon someone, and he had a brief anxiety attack over it, but was quickly consoled by Shag, who would have been attacked had Aoth not taken action. Continuing their dual flank pattern led the group back together, at the mouth of a cave leading into a naturally hollowed out hill. Going in somewhat recklessly, they were ambushed by three more lycans, but managed to kill two and badly wound the third one, chasing it as it tried to escape. They were ambushed once again by two more lycans, plus the one they chased, who was not fighting for its life. Yief blocked barrage after barrage of attacks, defending his team as they all struck back, overpowering and killing the three lycans. However, once they thought they had won, they heard a terrifying noise, as a Beholder hovered out from another tunnel across the room from them. Yief charged it, but was immediately blown back by a barrage of its eye beams. Aoth and Shag ran toward it and began striking, only for it to attack all three of them, killing Yief in the process and wounding Aoth. Halrek, realizing they likely couldn't defeat the Beholder, realized he had a chance to find and free Tayleph, and sprinted past the Beholder to the tunnel it came from, yelling for Shag and Aoth to grab Yief and run. Shag, however, quickly realized that with Aoth hurt, they wouldn't get out before being attacked, so he drew the Beholder's attention with a barrage of attacks, only to be paralyzed, knocked much further back into the room, and petrified by a series of eye beams. Aoth, seeing Shag paralyzed, took decisive action, jumping past the Beholder to Yief's body, drawing a diamond he'd been holding onto since the raid on the Golden Reaver ship, and de-materializing it to cast a spell of life, bringing Yief back, and shoving him further from the Beholder so he could get in between them. He yelled at Yief to run and take Shag, before casting a healing spell on himself so he could continue to fight and buy them time.

Meanwhile, Halrek found a room with four prisoners, two of them being very young boys, one teenager, and an old man, and started letting them out, telling them to try and find another way out that wasn't the tunnel he came from. The two boys found a wall where the rock was cracked, and began to crumble when they pushed hard enough on it. Aoth continued to fight, while Yief picked up the petrified Shag and sprinted for the exit. He was conflicted about leaving Aoth, but knew he was hurt and that he shouldn't waste the chance to save Shag and survive that Aoth risked his life for. The Beholder lifted Aoth telepathically, slowly pushing him back while hitting him with more damaging eye beams. As Aoth was pushed back enough that he could see Yief running with Shag, he pushed as hard as he could, and in another immense feat of strength, broke out of the Beholder's telepathic grip, landing in a superhero pose. He put his hand on his shield to push himself back up to a standing position, and smiled as he said "I can do this all day."

Halrek freed all four prisoners as they crumbled the wall, revealing a natural tunnel that they all started running through. Aoth continued to battle the Beholder, dodging and even deflecting its eye beams. Shag overcame the petrification, and Yief put him down by the entrance, saying he couldn't leave Aoth behind. Charging back in, he saw Halrek come out with the prisoners, and knew they had bought enough time. He ran back into the Beholder's room, and beckoned for Aoth to come with them. Aoth tried to run, but collapsed in exhaustion from his battle. Before the Beholder could attack them, Yief powered through the pain his body was still in, and picked Aoth up, throwing him over his shoulders, and ran full speed for the exit. Shag overcame his paralysis in time to run out with them and with Halrek and the prisoners. As soon as they made it out of the cave mouth, Yief and Aoth drew their hammers and smashed the rocks above the entrance, caving it in and sealing the cave.

Just as they thought they were safe, one of the two young boys began to have body convulsions as the light of the full moon touched him, and began to turn. Shag cast a sleep spell, stopping the process. They picked him up and began to run back to camp. Coming back into the clearing, Abella had started propping herself back up, and cried out for her son as the boy who hadn't turned ran toward her. The old man said he may know of a place where the young boy could be cured, and where Abella could receive medical attention to return to full health.

Arriving back at camp, the guards immediately went to tend to the freed prisoners for their minor injuries, but in the bustle, Vissella realized that Darkwind had gone missing. Despite being tired and injured, the group immediately split up to find him. After about ten minutes, Aoth found him in the woods, practicing creating fire in his hands and shooting it. Seeing Aoth's injuries, he asked if everything was okay, and Aoth reassured him that it was now. Darkwind apologized for scaring everyone, as he didn't think anyone would realize he was missing. He then expressed that while Vissella had been teaching him how to channel his energy, he knew there was a vastly greater power inside him and he was afraid of what would happen if he lost control of it. Aoth told him that he had faith in Darkwind's skill, and that if he ever hurt someone, he should learn the ways to ask for forgiveness, and work toward reparation. However, even Aoth didn't truly know what consequences would happen if Darkwind were to lose control like he did on the boat against the Sea Serpent or in their sparring match on Wavecrest Island.

They both then felt an energy seem to call them. It felt warm, but mysterious. They looked at each other to confirm they both felt it, and decided to follow it. They ventured deeper into the woods, and came to a massive cave mouth that went underground. They began descending together, and when the light ran out, Darkwind took Aoth's hand and walked in front of him, as he could still see clearly. After descending for nearly ten minutes, they finally came to an opening, where they discovered they were in the den of a huge golden dragon. The dragon had a natural luminescence that reflected off the piles of gold and treasures that he lay upon. It explained that it felt a great energy near its home, and called them there so it could see who these newcomers were. He then said that with them there in front of him, he knew for sure that the energy he felt was that of the Dragonborn. Darkwind asked how anyone could wield such power, which the dragon responded that the dragonborn wasn't a random occurence, and the dragon god only chose those whose hearts had the courage, conviction, purpose, and unyielding strength that a dragon did. It had been more than two millenia since the last dragonborn, and that even if Darkwind didn't know it yet, he would come to be worthy of that power. He said to have confidence in his path, and that if he did, the world may yet change in ways they couldn't imagine. He then said to Aoth that while Darkwind was destined for great things, he was still a boy, and Aoth would have to continue being his shield. Aoth assured the dragon that he would give his life for the boys, and promised him that their quest would be successful. The dragon wished them luck, and as Aoth turned to leave, the dragon bowed its head to Darkwind, acknowledging him as the true king of their kind.

They returned to camp, where Darkwind apologized to everyone for frightening them before showing Vissella how much control he had gotten over his fire creation. The group went to sleep after a grueling evening, and packed up their camp the next morning to take the last leg of their journey to the Methwood. They were relieved that the quest would soon be completed, but still all felt a general uneasiness.