Burnt to Ash

26th March 2023

Dragonash ruins lives and it looks like it's coming out of the mountains. There's a lot of gold going in those same mountains too. It might be time to put a stop to this at source.

## Adventurers Attending

* Aloisius
* Skamos
* Creed
* Circe
* Grrder
* Caspar

## Mission Notes

Grrder received a message via the sending stone he picked up from 'Wretchedness in the Warrens', "We know who you and your troublesome friends are, come to the South Warrens and enter the mountain, so we can finally end this.... dicks.". Standing atop the Guildhouse and casting light on himself, Grrder set the beacon for adventurers, as Skamos, Creed, Circe, Casper and Aloissius arrived, Samuel, senior clerk at the Guildhouse attempted to appraise Skamos and Aloissius of the documents that had been retrieved from 'Ashes to Ashes', which seemed to show large sums of gold headed under the mountains on the Warrens routes.

Taking Hamer and the cart to Deep river, some confusion over directions led to a stop at the 'Miner's Cut' before they headed out towards the mountain east of the South Warrens, where they came across another of the Dragonash smugglers border houses, which like last time fired on them as they came into crossbow range. Creed flew over on his broom, poured oil on the roof and set the wooden structure alight, as the bandits fled the rear of the building on canal boat into the mountain. Headed into the mountain, they found the bandits laying in wait, after some quick combat, the bandits, breathing dragon fire here and there, our adventurers quickly dispatched them and their dogs. Seemingly meant to slow them down, very little time was lost, before they descended into the mountain.

Arriving to a deep warm chamber beneath the mountain our adventurers found 6 dragonborns and a bandit captain in discussion with a red dragon. Creed stepping forward to listen, discovered the dragonborns apologising for late and short payment of gold to the dragon, owing to certain disruptions. Disinterested in their pleading the dragon sought only gold and not apologies. Stepping forward to announce himself and speak to the dragon, Creed set himself to explaining that the dragonborns were of little use to him and that he should toss them aside. With mind solely on gold, the Dragon sought offering and tribute, with words worth no weight in gold. In an attempt to persuade the dragon, but lacking heavily in diplomacy, Creed told the dragon it was thick and that if it were smart then it would .... at this point, ego bruised, the dragon unleashed a mighty breath of flame covering the whole party.

Combat commenced and Aloissius, having downed just about every potion in his bag, charged enlarged to the dragon and began slashing this way and that in an attempt to trip the dragon, on sturdy feet, the dragon would not fall prone, but did fall foul of many slice, stab and slash by sword. As the party sought to gain better position, many traded places, before another breath of flame, which began characters falling unconscious, if not fleeing at least 120ft away down the tunnel. Grrder thinking better of it, hid under water, while Casper remained brave and set about swinging his mace, but it was Skamos and Aloissius, after some hesitation that lept into the fray. As dragonborns entered the combat on command of the dragon. As the dragon improved its position it became clear that she was protecting a number of younglings hidden in the back and was torn between attacking and protecting, encouraging her associates to fight for her. The dragonborns were no match for the guild members though and began falling one by one as each's visage faded and they returned to tall blue bald humanoids, which both annoyed and confused the dragon. As they fell Grrder returned to dry land, firing a guiding bolt at the dragon. It was at this point that the dragon was forced to reenter the combat and with another breath of fire, more fell, but rising to the occasion, Skamos lept forward with outswung hammer and dropped the unsteady beast, lining up a perfect finishing act for Aloissius, who arose moments later after a number of sword swings as Aloissius 'Dragon Slayer'.

In the ending chaos, the Dragonlings sought escape rather than combat and flew out of tunnels and escape routes to the rear of the cavern. Leaving our adventurers with piles of dragonash, dragonglass, gold and a rather large dead dragon. Throwing his dragonash supply in the Lava, Skamos said goodbye to drugs and hello to gold as he revealed his bag of holding. Scavenging a small tooth from the dragon, after destroying a few, Aloissious now had his prize, which he will no doubt never mention again.

Filling the bag of holding with gold the party were able to take 9,996 gold coins from the hoard, but seemingly no more, despite additional room, any more gold added unknowingly displaced gold already present in the bag of holding.

## Loot

* Standard Level Xp & Gold
* Circe - 1666gp
* Creed - 1666gp
* Skamos - 1666gp
* Grrder - 1666gp + Coin of Attraction
* Aloissius - 1666gp + Coin of Misfortune
* Caspar - 1666gp + Coin of Renewal

## Rumours

* What happened to the escaping red dragonlings?
* With the method of dragonash production seemingly dead, what will happen with dragonash now?
* Who were the blue men who took on the appearance of others and have they all been taken care of?