Old Flame...New Flames? - 8/9/2019

The Clutch stood outside of the caved in entrance of what used to be the legendary home of the ALCR. Sitara and Meattus both stared at Lillishandra gasping, 'What...did...you...do?!'

Lilli giggles and holds her hand out. 'I took this!!' The orb the ALCR pointed too sits in the palm of Lilli's hand, its insides swirling around.

Meattus and Sitara both look to each other. Meattus mumbles, 'Well that explains it.' Sitara looks to the sky noticing that the sun is nearly about to set. 'We should probably put some distance between ourselves and the ALCR. If...When he gets out, he will not be happy.'

The Clutch all agree to head back to Hogg's Hollow and move toward the Briar Patch to find an adequate location to call camp for the evening.

Night starts to fall, and the three moons shine brightly upon the group as they start to prepare their campsite. Meattus and Sitara went about to collect firewood, while Lilli was supposed to be collecting tinder (but is instead chasing butterflies). Sitara while leaning over to grab a dry piece of wood, looks over to a running stream, and notices fish jumping, then...hovering in the air. Sitara calls back to her friends and points the oddly behaving fish out to the group.

Lilli gasps and shrieks with excitement, calling Isis over and quickly opening her Tome of Cats - summoning a cat to lay upon the tome. She purrs and meows with the cats and they quickly stalk the fish. Lilli attempts to bat at the fish as well. Meattus shakes his head and steps over. 'Move little one, you won't want to be near me in a second.' Lilli snarls her lip just slightly and meows to her cats and slowly steps back, as she sees sparks start to flick from Meattus, and ozone erupt from the air, she bounds off with her cats quickly following. Meattus roars as the air around him crackles with electricity. He pushes his hands into the water. Upon doing so a mound of fish rises to the surface of the river. The Clutch quickly collects the fish.

Meattus identifies 8 of the fish (those that hovered slightly) as Eldridge Salmon. They are known to give vigor to anyone who would ingest some of them. They have a rainbow like scaling, and are able to be eaten raw. With those prized 8 to the side, the other fish are fed to Lilli's ever growing collection of cats, and Flayer - the baby owlbear. Who hoots happily as he is presented the fish, then quickly devours it in a ravenous rage, that leaves Lilli stricken with fear and hanging onto her cats, and Sitara with her mouth hanging open. Only Meattus found it to be mildly adorable...Lilli breaks the silence, with a quiet hiss, 'Meattus, you need to train that thing before it eats us.'

The three eat their salmon dinner and feel extremely satisfied with themselves. They feel as if they could take on a bit more of the world then they normally would.

The night passes uneventfully. As day starts to break, and Sitara's watch ends. She hears the faint sounds of someone running. She reaches into her backpack and retrieves her everburning torch and urgently wakes Lilli and Meattus. A woman with blue skin rushes into the grove. She appears to be a tiefling. She looks around and gasps, 'Meattus?' Meattus arches his eyebrows and responds in kind, 'Vulvia?' She runs to Meattus and snuggles up next to him, 'It's so good to see you!' As she snuggles against Meattus (obviously distracting him), Sitara notices her place an object into the half-orc's pocket. 'Hey! What did you put in his pocket!?!'

Vulvia gasps as she's been caught, and takes off running again. Sitara reaches out to grab her, as Lilli backflips in front of her path. Lilli giggles, 'What was it!?' As Vulvia starts to answer, they all turn their sights to a coach-sized red dragon that came crashing into view.

The dragon growls, 'Give the girl over.' Meattus rushes over to Vulvia, 'What did she do?' he asks as he pushes her behind him. 'That. Is not your concern.' Sitara yells, 'What did she do!? Why does a crystal matter? I'm sure you have plenty of them!'

The dragon starts to inhale sharply and lets out a large breath of flame. Sitara quickly places her shield in front of her to protect her from the blast. Lilli gasps and dives out of the way, evading the blast entirely. Meattus and Vulvia take the brunt of the flames, but it could have been much worse...

Lilli continues her dive to land beside the dragon with her weapons readied to land a flurry of blows. To her surprise she lands two of her five attacks. The surprise of the attack caught the dragon off guard knocking it prone. Sitara follows suit and runs up to land a critical blow with the poisoned rapier, and smites the dragon. Vulvia tucks and rolls to behind the dragon her trident piercing the scales of the dragon as she stands.

The dragon rolls to his side and utters an incantation causing a wall of flame to erupt. Meattus again takes damage from the heat and flames while the others are able to evade or shield themselves from the eruption.

Lilli growls and steps to the side to avoid the flames that erupted beside her, and in doing so lands another flurry causing the dragon to again fall prone. Sitara pierces through the dragonscale twice and lands a smite upon the dragon. She shakes her head in disbelief, as she felt that those blows should have been causing more damage. Meattus roars in defiance, his tattoos lighting with electricity. His Spider Friend striking the flank of the dragon twice. Vulvia targets a vulnerable area on the dragon and manages to land a sneak attack. The dragon again utters a quick incantation and disappears from before the group several feet in the air.

Lilli, intense on the hunt, throws her punches to their air in frustration - a missile erupting from her clenched fists upon each outstretch. The dragon utters some words quickly dispelling the missiles. Meattus steps back and throws a javelin, it hitting the target. The damage was not enough to make it again fall to the ground.

Introductions are given to Vulvia as she inquired who Sitara and Lilli were. Meattus and she explain that during his time being held captive by Cunilinga, Vulvia was also there. The two were extremely close. Vulvia is a rogue by trade, and is -very- good with her hands. (Or so Meattus claims.) Vulvia is very open with her attempts to get people close. Meattus and Vulvia make this very evident by the number of innuendos spoken. The innuendos though go over the innocent mind of Lilli who thinks them all to be very common activities. So much that she believes Meattus and Vulvia will be going back to have a sleep over! Upon that comment, Vulvia's eye's light up. She looks to Sitara and states - 'I do not do prim and proper.' She smiles slyly to Sitara as she then steps close to Lilli, and asks if the monk likes dancing, to which she quickly giggles, and says, 'Oh yes!! I love to dance!' Vulvia puts her arm around Lilli, and the two inch closer to Hogg's Hollow discussing how the dancing shall take place. Sitara walks back with Meattus and whispers, 'Do not turn that sweet, innocent elf into a hoe.'

The group discusses the options of where to go as they arrive into town. They settle that they need to see what the crystal is, and how much they can get paid. During the conversation Vulvia steps in, 'Ahem...mind if I join the conversation?' The Clutch tells Vulvia of Lorthen and their trials and tribulations they've had with the 'shame wizard'.

Upon arriving at the shack, Lorthen arrives and immediately notices the crystal - his eyes go wide with shock. He declares that it is a dragon's memory. It does indeed have an intact memory inside.

Lorthen: Where did you get this? What have you been up to?

Meattus: We...ran into a dragon.

Sitara: A rather decent sized red one.

Lorthen: Aside from looking a bit charred I say you fared decently well then.

Meattus: Obviously. How much will you give for the memory?

Lorthen: I have no interest in the memory...I want the crystal.

The group realizes that the crystal he's discussing is actually rethorite. Sitara and Meattus press Lorthen further, knowing that it is worth more than he offered.

Lorthen: Fine. Despite our minor conflicts you've been good customers. I'll give you 3,000 gold and something. Is there anything you all are in need of?

Meattus having considered how much damage he endured to flames, 'Do you happen to have something to protect one from flames?'

Lorthen floats up to the several boxes and containers that line the walls, and pulls out a red fur cloak...that has a dog head. As Lorthen floats down, the dog head makes a muffled barking noise.

Lorthen: This is Cinders. He has been in the family for some time, and shows you what happens when you attempt to make a hellhound pelt sentient...

Lorthen sighs as Cinders rambles on about being excited to be out of the box. Meattus with a skeptical tone inquires, 'How can I know that it...he'll protect me?'

Lorthen nods, takes Cinders from Meattus, and places him upon the floor. Lorthen then casts a spell and a ball of fire bursts from his hand and directly hits Cinders. The hellhound claims, 'Oh feels good!' Lorthen picks the cloak back up and hands it to Meattus.

Meattus then wraps the cloak around him, and Cinders sits upon his head and claims, 'Really feels nice!'

Lorthen looks to Lilli, 'And what do you need?'

Lilli shuffles her feet, 'Well...I'd like two things! One, something to protect me from getting bashed...Two, well, I want to know what \*this\* is...' She holds Isis up to Lorthen, the black familiar holding the orb she retrieved from the ALCR around her neck.

Lorthen's eyes grow wide. He inquires where the Clutch retrieved this from. They explain about the ALCR and the Tesseract. He shakes his head, 'I need this.' Lilli shakes her head, 'No! He wanted to use it to kill our gods!' She looks quickly to Sitara. 'I need to keep it, also, it made me feel weird when I picked it up. That's good right?'

Sitara looks to Lorthen, 'What is it? And what happens when normal people hold it?'

Lorthen explains as he removed the orb from Isis and expands it, 'This is a Dragon Orb. Made millennia ago by the first dragons. The dragons had their own empire. Averusix was one, the immortal high wyrm. He was good, but then turned evil when the Old Ones called to him and made him go crazy. You do know, legend has it, that he was the first chromatic dragon. The dragons then went through a civil war. Anyway...back to the orb. It's an evil artifact, it contains the souls of dragons...one possible from his council? To answer your question.' He looks to Lilli, 'A normal person would most likely go crazy by holding it.'

Sitara and Meattus look to Lilli with concern. Lilli shrugs and says, 'It made me feel funny, I trust it. I'm not crazy yet!'

Sitara looks to Lorthen, 'What created the dragons? Were the original ones gods?'

Lorthen replies, 'Legend has it that the first to be born in the world, were the primordials, and their children were dragons. The dragons then created their own empire but did not agree and tore the land into two...Reth and Teth. Upon this evil that was scene, they went through a ritual to rid themselves of the evil. The evil seeped out and made the Old Ones.'

Lilli reaches out to retrieve the orb, and manipulates it back to the size that it was, then large again. Effortlessly.

Sitara looks to Lorthen, 'Um, is she supposed to be able to do that?'

Lorthen states, 'She must have innate magic.'

Lilli giggles, 'Well funny things happen to me at times, but only when I get really mad.'

Lorthen shakes his head, 'This is not good.' He reaches behind him and takes a pair of bracers and hands them to Lilli. 'I believe you'll need those to help protect you.' He then looks to Sitara. 'And you?' She replies that she could also use protection from attacks. He collects a leaf from a container and gives it to Sitara. 'Wear that and say the command word. It can be any word you wish, and you can change it daily.'

Sitara places the leaf on her arm, thinks for a moment, and says, 'Power.' The leaf then branches and grows additional leaves in a circular fashion around forming a shield.

Lorthen sighs, 'Now that is taken care of, who wants the memory.'

They all look to Lilli. She giggles, 'I guess it's me.'

Lorthen hands Lilli the crystal, and Sitara says, 'What does she need to d...' As she's about to finish her sentence Lilli glows and her eyes roll back. A heavy voice bellows in her mind: "Mighty and glorious, Dagorath, your charade keeps your minions ignorant to your desires. You move them with ease. Even with your two pawns lain by their interference. Palanthalos is none the wiser. Soon Father, we will controll ALL that your eyes survey." Lilli gasps, 'HOT! Eyes, big, red!' Once Lilli catches her breath she tells the group what she saw.

Sitara inquires, 'How old is this memory?' Lorthen contemplates a moment, 'I'd say no more than a month old?' She continues, 'And who exactly is Dagorath and Palanthalos?' As Sitara mention Palanthalos' name, she remembers the silver dragon and gasps, 'Silver. Dragon. They are the natural enemies of Reds!' Lorthen nods as Sitara starts to put the pieces together, he continues, 'Dagorath was rumored to be a legendary dragon near the briar patch that can kill armies merely by rolling over. Palanthalos is rumored to live atop the mountain, closest to Polanthas.' Lorthen looks to the group, 'I need to report what you all have told me today back to the council. I'll let you know what they find out.'

Meattus asks Lorthen, 'Is there anyway you can get us quickly to Polanthas?' Lorthen sighs slowly, 'Come back in the morning, we will see if the doors open and stay open for you.'

As the Clutch leaves and starts to head to their home they give 1,000 gold to Vulvia. Sitara nods to her and says, 'Your portion of the earnings.' She smiles in response and says, 'You know. I can come with you, you may need an additional set of eyes, and hands on this trip.' The Clutch quickly discusses. Sitara continues, 'Do not steal anything.'

The Clutch (now one member larger) steps into their now well furnished home with their extra key upon the table. They hear \*THUNK\* and a small familiar voice call out, 'You home!?' \*THUNK\* Dekin arrives at the top of the ladder with a wooden chest. After the shock and inquiry, it was discovered that Dekin has been sneaking off at night and one night managed to collect a chest of clothing. The clothing now turned into sheets and bedding for his area. He was very proud he got something for the group and desperately wanted to see them put things into the newly acquired chest. Sitara placed an extra long sword in, and Dekin unsuccessfully attempted to get Lilli to put the Dragon Orb in.

Meattus introduces Dekin to Cinders (who snapped at Dekin) and to Flayer (who Lilli agreed she did not like either and would like for Dekin to fry him up for dinner.) After the introductions Dekin rushes off to make the Clutch some stew.

As the Clutch started to settle in for dinner, there was a knock at the door. Once the menagerie of animals was hidden, Lilli opened the door to reveal five men and women with gold armor all marked with the Symbol of Eyrn. The leader spoke with a clear voice, 'We are here for Sitara.'

#### Previous Adventure:

Where is Logic when Dealing with Gods? - 7/14/2019