Session 39

# August 15th, 2019 - The Ironbay Lord Council

## Return to Ironbay

The session began as the party dealt with the mess they left in Count Blagothkus’ cloud castle. Over the next four days the party spent most of the time thawing the treasure out of the ice, throwing dead bodies off the castle, and carving up the body of the adult white dragon. Instead of just shrinking and tossing the dragon corpse out, the party meticulously removed all the teeth, hundreds of pounds of scales and skin, and filled all manner of containers with dragon’s blood. These items would surely sell to wizards and alchemists in the metropolis of Ironbay. Once they had harvested all they could carry, Lachlan shrunk the dragon’s corpse and burned it with his magic.

Rachen spent time with the Count, getting to know more about the giant and what his goals were, and the party also spent time training their new wyverns. The wyverns were already domesticated, trained to respond to riders and Talis’ whistle; however, they were not accustomed to the party. Being only five wyverns and six party members, it was unfortunately Rufus who was the small man out, and so he and Lachlan agreed to partner up. With their destination Ironbay, but having plenty of time according to Lady Silverhand, Thia requested the castle first be taken to Elturiel so she could see her other two dragons. And so, on the third day, the cloud castle drifted over the small walled city and Thia and Lachlan flew their new wyverns down to the Dominion monastery.

After assuring the monks and paladins the cloud castle was no threat, Thia spent time with all three of her dragons and realized how much quicker Elysian was growing. She had intended on switching out one of the other whelps, but even though they had grown much faster than a dragon would without her magical bond, they were still smaller than Elysian and unable to truly fly yet. While Thia was occupied in the monastery’s woodland, Lachlan inquired about and was granted access to a teleportation circle in the heart of the Order of the Sword’s cathedral. The wizard memorized the circle’s runes and inscribed them in one of his books so he could also teach Alburt. As night fell, the two flew back up to the giant’s cloud castle with the means to have Thia return more often.

Before the castle reached Ironbay, Blagothkus had confided in Rachen that he may eventually need their help in outdoing his chief cloud giant rival - Countess Sansuri. He was taking half of the recovered treasure to investigate and figure some things out on his own, but when the time came he would call upon them once more. To tell the group when that time arrived, Blagothkus gave Rachen a small magical crystal ball filled with swirling clouds. It would act similarly to the sending stones given by Lady Silverhand, but would also allow the two to speak directly. Then, on the one hundred and fiftieth day since the raid on Greenest the party and the glacial cloud castle flew over the coastal city of Ironbay.

Rachen had used the runes in the castle’s steering tower (under the direction of the Count) to summon clouds surrounding the castle to conceal it’s approach. Once they reached the city, Blagothkus did not want to land for fear of what the masses of humans would do, and so instead stopped the castle directly above the city. The party mounted their wyverns and flew down to Lady Silverhand’s estate in the North Ward. There were already many townsfolk looking and pointing at the line of wyverns flying down from the clouds, and when they landed in the estates grassy courtyard the steward quickly came to meet them. As did a dozen of the cities elite griffon riders.

Once Rachen showed his writ of authority and it was clear the guards knew they were coming (but not on the backs of wyverns), the party was informed Lady Silverhand was not home and would not be meeting with the group there. The party was instead summoned to meet with the entire Ironbay Lord Council at the Iron Citadel in the Castle Ward. First, the griffon riders were instructed to help them ferry down the recovered treasure, and it was to be taken to the heavily guarded courtyard of the Iron Citadel itself. Thus, for the next few hours the party and the griffon riders flew up to the castle, grabbed as much treasure as they could carry (much of it was large art objects, or piled into sacks, crates, and chests), and flew down to the citadel. This was definitely a unique sight in the city, and the streets filled with cityfolk watching the spectacle and cheering.

## The Ironbay Lord Council

Once it became clear the castle was in no danger, the Count dispelled the clouds surrounding the castle. Revealing for the entire city the magnitude of his icy cloud castle hovering high above. It wasn’t until the end of the day that the group finished shuttling treasure, and the griffon riders stabled their wyverns at the Citadel. Finally, the group entered into the Citadel proper for their audience with the Lord Council. The two representatives from the previous ‘Quiet Council’ were in attendance, Leosin Erlanthar of the Dominion, and Ontharr Frume of the Order of the Sword.

Notably missing was Jemna Gleamsilver of the Black Brotherhood and Harshnag the friendly frost giant. Lady Silverhand had told the party she would help teleport them back to Ironbay, but they were clearly not allowed to be in the meeting. Only Lachlan had been in the Lord Council throne room before, and upon a raised dais on the end of a long pillared hall were seven thrones. Lady Silverhand was seated to the right of the center throne. After Lady Silverhand introduced the party as her adventurers that had been investigating the Cult of the Dragon, the Lord sitting on the central throne, High Lord Dagult Vonner told the group he was skeptical of them, until their arrival riding a giant’s cloud castle, and returning thousands of gold on the backs of wyverns.

As the only official member of the Lord’s Accord in attendance, Rachen briefed the council on all that had happened since they had left for the Dethmere swamps. This included everything with chasing the cult treasure, killing the Black Wymspeaker and recovering her Black Dragon Mask, how these are the masks allowing the cult to control adult dragons, how the cult had manipulated the cloud giant Count Blagothkus, and how the party helped rid his castle of the cult. Rachen gave them the recovered documents the party found among the Wyrmspeaker and the Night Wizard simulacrum’s chambers. Finally, beyond the obvious return of a large amount of stolen treasure, Rachen revealed the final thing they had learned. That the cult is amassing a giant army of dragons, cultists, and mercenaries in the secluded Sharpteef Mountains to the south around a dragon graveyard known as the Well of Dragons.

It was Count Blagothkus that gave them this information, having traveled there to ferry treasure at least two previous times. The Count told how the cult was also building a large temple there, supposedly for the return of their dragon god Tiamat. Based on the forces reportedly already assembled, it would be foolish to attack the site with anything less than an army. All of this clearly troubled the council, who had feared something larger was going on, but the army of Ironbay alone would not be enough to combat this threat. High Lord Vonner agreed with Lady Silverhand’s assessment that the time assemble the full Lord’s Accord had come.

It would take quite some time to make all the arrangements to convene a full meeting of Lord’s Accord, and so the council tasked the party to continue their endeavors to try and assuage the giant’s Oracle. Helping reunite the giant clans on their side could be the single most important thing that could be done to help fight against the cult and their dragons. In doing so, they could also help convince the dwarves to join the cause by helping defeat the fire giants plaguing their lands. Toward that end, the Lord Council revealed they had secured the use of the cities very first airship to take them to the Far North and the frost giant Jarl Storvald’s village. This airship was crewed by gnomes to conserve weight, and could take them, Harshnag, supplies, and ten others.

Those ten others would be soldiers under the command of Rachen, who the Lord Council officially promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Giving him command over a platoon of twenty soldiers, ten of which would have to remain here in Ironbay. The council also gave the reward to Lachlan they had promised him upon their first meeting - a writ of authority granting him access to any ancient ruins or archaeological site of his choosing for study of ancient dragon lore. The council told the party the airship was ready to go when they wished, but encouraged them to take some time to rest and recover before their next adventure began. The group was given free room and board and they took advantage of the time in the city, spending about a tenday doing various activities.

Firstly, everyone resupplied and went to the various shops in the city to sell loot. This included the magical chainmail Rufus had found (sold for 3,000 golden griffons), and the massive amount of dragon body parts to local alchemists and wizards. Rachen coordinated with Lady Silverhand to have her enchant him a new set of platemail (for +1), and Thia investigated what it would cost to turn enough dragon scales and skin into Dragonscale Mail. Realizing she would not have the coin just yet, she, Rufus, and a few others gave Lady Silverhand some gold to safely store their treasure in her mansion. The party bought out the cities magical supplies and alchemist shops of their existing healing potions (20 healing and 9 greater healing total), and pursued a few other activities.

Notably, Cadmus and Alburt spent the rest of the tenday gambling, and each were lucky enough to come away with more gold than when they started. Lachlan spent the time in Lady Silverhand’s library, reading scrolls and copying spells into his spellbook - that he would later share with Alburt. That is where the session ended, after a tenday of rest, relaxation, and carousing in Ironbay.

It was the one hundred and sixtieth day since the raid on Greenest, as the party made preparations for a long airship trip to the Far North to recover stolen giant artifacts.

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