Session 68

# July 28th, 2021 - Deepwood Dragon's Domain

## Dogfight with a Dragon

The session began just after Lachlan had cast *fly* on the party, who then took off into the sky after the ancient green dragon and its purple robe wearing elf rider. They were already miles from the elven village of Altand, and in the bright full moon the group could see the trees below starting to look wilted and dead. Some of the party members, like Rufus, focused their initial ranged shots at the dragon. However, its thick scales and hide was difficult to get through. Thia focused her attention on the rider, firing her bow while ordering Maximus to try and latch onto the dragon’s tail.

Cadmus and Rachen both flew as fast as they could but instead quickly grabbed onto the great clawed feet of Alburt - who had *polymorphed* himself into a giant roc instead of flying himself. The spell also made him enormous just like the dragon, and roc-Alburt flew fast enough to catch up to the gargantuan beast. Before they reached the ancient green, the enormous beast reared his head and blasted his powerful tornado of poison gas breath towards the following party. But they flew through it as if it were a harmless wind, due to Cadmus’ *hero's feast* they were immune to the green’s poison *and* fear.

In moments, roc-Alburt was there and Rachen flew over and grabbed onto one of the dragon’s legs, while Cadmus dove straight for the rider. The cleric focused a *gust of wind* onto the purple robe wearing elf until he was dislodged. Cadmus dove further following the rider towards the ground, continuing to pummel him with his wind. The rider cast a *globe of invulnerability* around himself as they crashed through the tree line and into the earth.

Immediately after the two party members detached from roc-Alburt’s legs he slammed into the ancient green dragon. Wrestling with the beast mid-air, talons and claws grappling and slashing each other. The dragon was whiplashing his tail striking at party members, while Rachen clung to a leg slashing with his sword. But, roc-Alburt successfully grappled the dragon’s wings with his own and his talons to where the two had stopped forward momentum and started to fall from the sky.

Rufus had flown to the ground for safety, and fired shots at the dragon, as it and roc-Alburt crashed through the trees and into the forest below. The trees all around were bare, massive gnarls of dead branches and a thick deep yellow fog permeated the air all around. If not for their immunity to poison, they would surely be as dead as this place. Rachen tumbled and landed with minor wounds thanks to his *animated shield* and Lachlan’s *fly*. The other party members continued to fire at the dragon, while roc-Alburt released him and flapped his wings to hop back a bit. The giant bird then transformed back into his natural dragonborn wizard self.

All the while, Cadmus continued to pummel the elven rider into the ground with the *gust of wind*. The rider had failed to charm the battle cleric, and Cadmus finished the discussion by whipping the wizard in the side of the head with his *staff of thunder and lightning*, knocking him unconscious in a boom of sound of electricity.

Once back in his natural form and positioned behind the ancient green dragon, Alburt unleashed a powerful *disintegrate* spell at the beast’s rear. Being too large to be entirely turned to ash, the powerful spell instead erupted a large portion of the dragon’s entrails. Explosively ejecting out the monster’s back end, showering the group in blood and gore as the dragon collapsed.

## Deepwood Dragon’s Domain

Cadmus had the elf bound and gagged by the time the party all collected together around the prisoner. The dragon was carrying nothing other than his poorly made rider saddle, and the elf also had nothing other than his robes and generic wand. However, after a short while Thia thought she recognized the wood elf. She was not from the Deepwood houses of wood elves, but was almost certain she had seen portrait drawings of their royal family. With this elf being among them.

The group started thinking about the situation, the wood elf King Melandrach did not want them to investigate the forest. His daughter, Princess Alleria had independently gone through the Dominion of Druids to urge Rufus and the Champions to intervene. And by the sign of this section of the woods, the dragon had made a lair here for some time. Was the royal family involved with the Cult of the Dragon directly? The group quickly woke the elf and started to interrogate him.

Needless to say, he would not reveal much about himself, but freely told the group the cult didn’t need his efforts anymore. They were mostly ready for their ritual, so he had remained here with his dragon partner to continue raiding the elves. Between the group’s efforts, with Rachen and Cadmus doing a little good cop/bad cop, they intimidated the elf enough to agree to take them to his lair. They wanted to take the elf back alive due to his possible importance.

With the dragon gone, the forest would slowly start to heal and the poison would recede, but it would take weeks. Until then, the forest floor here was dark with the thick fog, and the jumbles of dead branches and brush all around intertwining into a maze-like path. It took just less than an hour until the group stood at the base of a rocky waterfall that continued on as a small river. The elven wearer of purple said the lair was behind the waterfall down into the earth. Alburt had summoned the Breeze 5, and knowing it would not last long in the poison he sent the bird through the waterfall anyway.

Through the familiar’s eyes Alburt flew down the massive cave tunnel behind the waterfall downward and to the right as it curved and opened up into an even larger underground cavern. A good amount of water from the falls was coming down this tunnel and ended in a large lake with a small island in the center at the back of this cavern. The Breeze 5 flew around the space and with its *darkvision* could see a ledge atop the east wall where there were some elven shapes in bedrolls. There was also a small tunnel off to the west, and Alburt tried his best to navigate the tight turns.

Before he slammed into the wall (the bird had been holding its breath from the poison...), The Breeze 5 caught a glimpse of another set of bedrolls and a campfire. After the wizard snapped back to his senses, he relayed what he saw to the group. This was definitely a cultist hideout, but the entire place was still covered in thick poisonous fog that all the inhabitants seem to be immune to. And they all appeared to also be elves.

And that is where the short session ended, into the very early morning of the two hundred and seventy first (271st) day since the raid on Greenest.

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