Session 12

### The Gang finds a dragon

After speaking with the Lady of Craith about the Blue Dragon of Orusar, the group heads out of the city to finish up a mission they acquired several days ago--the missing Eckhard Magnus, son of Harold Magnus.

The group heads down the trade road and come across an abandoned cart on the side of the road. The contents of the cart has been cleared out, and there's no sign of a struggle. A set of foot prints head into the Dead Sands, with a separate set of footprints heading back into the city. The group follows the prints into the desert and come across a large beanstalk with a dead Cloud Giant at the base of the stalk. They hear loud crying noises at the top of the beanstalk and decide to climb the stalk to investigate further.

To help the group with the climb, they make a quick trip back to the city and visit AEI (Adventuring Equipment, Inc.). And they talk to an excitable rock climber employee named Chad.

The group uses their new gear to climb the beanstalk. And on the way up, Falgas and Skarūl attempt to show up each other with their unique climbing styles.

When they get to the top of the beanstalk, they realize they're on a floating island in the middle of the clouds. And there's an enormous cottage in the middle of it. They meet Cloudia, an elderly cloud giant who tells the group that she invited a young man into her home who claimed he was hiding from someone, and wanted her protection in return for helping her and her husband around the house. She agreed to this. But in the middle of the night, this individual stole various important items from her home and fled. Her husband, Claude, possibly in pursuit of the young man, jumped off the floating cloud island. And for reasons still unknown, he fell to his death rather than using any of his innate flying abilities.

Cloudia mentions that the young man in question was Eckhard Magnus. And he had stolen an important Talisman that her husband was guarding, along with a magical harp and their prized goose.

She mentions that she'd love to have the harp back, since it has sentimental value to her. But that they were welcome to keep the goose if they felt they could give him a proper home.

The group climbs back down the beanstalk and, at the request of Cloudia, chop down the beanstalk to prevent others from climbing up to her domain. Skarūl uses Thunderclap to help push the beanstalk away from the group, but ends up alerting a Roc to their presence. The group quickly sets up the Claude's dead body as bait, and hide behind the beanstalk. The Roc doesn't notice the group, and is distracted by the delicious dead cloud giant body. So it picks up the body and brings it back to its home on the edge of the desert.

The group continues to follow a new set of tracks they notice, that lead from the beanstalk to the coast. As they get closer to the coast, they notice the weather changes from hot arid deserts to thunderstorms. And they notice some desert wildlife being picked up by dust tornadoes and sinkholes. They avoid these dangers for now, but feel like they're being watched...

The group follows the footsteps to a beach with a cave. And following the tunnels into the cave, they come across a Blue Dragon and its treasure. The Blue Dragon is eating its meal--what appears to be a human arm. And the group assumes that they may have just found out the fate of Eckhard.

The group regroups outside the cave, and discuss their plans. Skarūl makes a hut for the group, so they have somewhere safe to run to if they need to fight the dragon. And they start to collect their treasures and discuss how they'll approach the negotiations.

*Find out what happens next with Skar-kūl and the Gang.*