How not to stop an ancient evil dragon from returning to life

GM: Robert

* Players:
* Rurik Thar (Marcus)
* Rowan (Christian)
* Ethanwe (Emma)
* Fafnir (Chris)
* Malfurion (Jordan)

Report

* Told to go kill some dragon cultists in Mt Beej by Ballic and Mira
* visited the elven emperor
* Flew to Mt Beej on some very

temperamental drakes

* Joined up with the Bear queen who helped us find a secret entrance
* Killed a bunch of cultists, but accidentally triggered the spell they were preparing
* Massive skeletal zombie dragon comes back to life.
* Five important NPCs teleport into the chamber, then four of them leave.
* The last remaining NPC (deranged looking Halfling)

laughs and kills the bear queen using the now awakened dragon

* The rest of us run away
* Thadrasiil, The Eclipse is seen flying east toward necromancer island

### Rhuriks Log (Marcus)

Once I returned to the granite citadel, I met up with some new adventurers to tackle a difficult quest: dragon cultists near Mt Beej had become worryingly active. This is an area of great magical significance and it was likely that the cultists would attempt to resurrect an ancient dragon, likely Thadrasiil, the Eclipse or possibly even the long dead dragon god himself. Mina and Baldor from the citadel were leading the mission and we were told that our party would be one of three strike teams aiming to intercept the cultists diabolical ritual. In an attempt to gather more Intel on the mountain (once the throne room of the ancient Elven Emperor), we traveled to the imperial city of the elves to petition for aid. Unfortunately, Fafnir offended the emperor greatly (turns out hes a bit racist) and we were forced to leave.

Upon returning to the citadel, we discovered that Baldor and the other strike teams had already left on the tame drakes owned by the citadel. We approached the keeper of dragons and eventually convinced him to let us take several of the remaining mounts to travel and meet up with the others. Those drakes are viscous! with a hearty bite and a vicious temper, it was all we could do to keep them under control. Unfortunately, when we stopped for a rest, my mount went feral and flew off potentially gone for good.

After we arrived at Mt Beej, our first task was to locate the ally Bear Queen who had been seen fighting the cultists. She was not willing to risk her subjects in combat but was happy to wade into battle herself. She carried us up the side of the mountain on her back to a secret entrance. After killing some cultists we successfully entered the sacrificial ritual chamber at the heart of the volcano. There were many cultists present, but despite overwhelming odds, we prevailed mightily. Unfortunately, in our haste to slaughter the evil cultists, the final sacrifice of the ritual was provided. This triggered the spell that the cultists had been preparing for so long- the resurrection of Thadrasiil, The Eclipse.

As soon as the spell began, the several powerful beings teleported into the chamber (the elven emperor, a human, an orc, a hobgoblin and a halfling). The elf and hobgoblin lords looked very annoyed while the human and the orc seemed extremely afraid. These four beings teleported away, leaving only the halfling who was laughing manically and stroking the skull of the awakening dragon. The Bear queen let out a bellow and lept for this puppet master, unfortunately, Thadrasiil grabbed the ursine in its massive claws and quickly crushed her to death. With no other option left to us, our party fled the chamber and met up with Mira - apparently the only surviving member of strike teams one and two. together we took the remaining drakes and flew back to the Citadel to plan our next move. The great dragon was last spotted flying east towards Necromancer island...

### Fafnir's Report (Chris)

Wallace asked a group of us to help kill some dragon cultists, so we went to see Meena, who was dealing with this expedition.

Meena told us to make some plans on how to assault the rim of Mt Beej, but didn't seem to like what we came up with.

When we had a plan that she was happy (enough) with, we were told to take some drakes (real drakes!) and fly to Mt. Beej, so as to arrive before the cultists' ritual could take place (the cultists wanted to raise Yogj).

We went straight to get the drakes, and spent the rest of the day flying, and then setting up camp.

In the morning, one of the drakes ran away, so Rurik and I had to share one. Rurik's a really decent dwarf, all things considered.

When we got there (after the rest of the group, because of some minor delays working out that the 5th drake had run away), it turned out that Ethanwe had fetched an ally - the bear queen!

We ran (on the back of the bear queen) up Mt. Beej, and 2 cultists attacked us, but we managed to defeat them and enter the mountain.

The ritual was about to start, so we started killing the cultists, but in the rush, the ritual was completed.

Some powerful mage-type folks appeared, and it turns out Thadrasiil is back from the dead, seemingly going to the Necromancer's Isle to regain a body.