2nd Campaign, Session 22. 11/11/25

3:00 PM, Icemonth the 19th. We talked about what our next options were. We assumed that we had to be getting close to the dragon, but wasn’t sure exactly where. The kobolds also looked like they had fled, so we weren’t sure if we were going to run into anything else while down here. Also, Fjord kept bringing up the Symbol to Graz’zt, and Yandr flat out told him that he’d start stabbing anyone who touched it. They had it in the box, tied closed, in the bag of holding, and Thobar was carrying the bag in his Porter chest.

We decided to head north from past the dark cave where eventually the passage split. It wandered north, split, came back together, and split again. Eventually ending up at the top of the cliffs that we had discovered a day or two ago and took the rope ladder from. We checked both sides and nothing had changed. Gun updated his map and we headed back to the long main corridor.

From here we had a passage east and two choices, but the northern one had some echoes come back – indicating a larger cave. We opted not to go that way, and instead headed east, southeast. The corridor was wide and spacious, but went on for a bit of distance before ending up at a 40 by 60’ chamber. Three sections of the wall were burning with wire, and 2 lava lizards were sleeping in here, using the flames to warm them. There was a door (a door?!?) on the south wall made of stone and the passage north past the lava lizards looked like it kept going.

We didn’t want any problem so we backed up a good 20’ down the passage and discussed options. Since they were sleeping, if Gun and Fjord could sneak up to them, they could end them with a single sword or dagger stroke. Before they headed off, Hrimvar called to Thrym and made the Halfling silent – the aura reaching out 15’ around him. They had 6 minutes.

So the two of them entered the chamber, went right up to the lava lizards, and pierced eyes and brains – killing the two monsters with a single stroke. Easiest encounter. We all reconvened and the spell ended. Gun wasn’t trusting the fires, assuming the dragon might be north of here. But the door here was worth looking at. The door was made of stone, thick, heavy, and the hinges were old and beaten into place. It was not locked but might have been in the past.

The door did not open easily and required some brute strength to get it to budge. Eventually it slid aside showing a rough cell 15’ diameter. A human warrior in dusty platemail was sitting on a chair, an ornate claymore at his feet. A simple straw pallet and table were here. We checked for traps (finding none), and then approached the dead guy. His armor and sword looked old in style, but had almost no wear on it – just discoloring and dust.

Fjord picked up the sword and there was a WHOOSHING sound, some dust swarmed around him, and he turned to the group and said, “You know, Brian, I think we should really go and find that dragon. Now. Like let’s go find it and kill it.” He was holding the blade and seemed focused. Altas guessed geas or quested at some point.

The group came in and convinced Fjord to wait and we need to rest, but the dragon is on our short list and we’ll go and get him soon. Cara and Yandr were looking over the warrior. He had a broken bow and in his quiver were 5 fancy arrows. Atlas cast a detect magic spell and we learned the sword was named “Dragon’s Bane”, a +1 weapon, +3 vs dragons. And if a dragon was within ½ a mile of the owner, he would draw the blade and become slowly increasingly fixated on finding and killing the dragon.

The armor was platemail +1, and according to Cara, the original owner was a knight and was 3rd generation. The maker’s mark was over a century and a half old. Yandr took the armor and wore it, giving his enchanted elven chain to Hrimvir who happily put it on. The arrows were given to Nevah after Atlas assured the group they were +2 to hit and damage. Again, on Nevah’s person was the telltale glow of a magic dagger but for now the party didn’t say much about it. As for the skeletal remains, Hrimvir called on Thrym again and animated it, having it rise to follow the party.

We left here closing the door and headed back to the main passage. From there we went east, north east to the large cavern. It was sizeable and was until recently a home to the kobolds, but right now was empty. We followed to the other side and the passage “Y”ed  here – north and east. East led back to the cave with the dead lava lizards so that made Gun happy. We did follow it north. Almost 25 minutes of walking and we came to a slope of broken rock and stone. This was the area where the large snake had tried to eat Gun so this matched up with the north end of the nap.

This brought us back to only one possible way – the passage that was south of the main corridor that eventually went west and got very tight and narrow (5’ tall tops, 2 and a half feet wide). Atlas, Yandr, and Fjord would have a tough time navigating the confined area. It was about 7 PM and we were beat so we headed back to the dragon warrior’s original room and shut the door, opting to rest here.

We ate, wrote some scrolls, and decided to set up watches, falling asleep at 8:30 PM.

The next morning (20th) we healed up, prayed, and got ready for the day ahead. Fjord seemed a bit more manic about finding the dragon (3.5 out of 10). Altas assured us that the effect would slowly grow as the days went on and the need to kill the dragon was not abated. IF the dragon were to leave the ½ mile radius, the effect would end immediately.

We decided on a lark before going, to search the room for secret doors – and holy Odin – we found it! On the east wall the passage slide in and to the right, revealing a dusty passage turning south. “This guy was trapped in here and died and there was a way out?!” The group pondered. “He was obviously a shitty knight and adventurer.”

We followed the passage about 50’ and it ended…at a blank wall. “Yeah, not buying it,” Yandr took out his sledge hammer and we figured him, Fjord, Cara, and Hrimvir would take turns beat at the wall until it broke down or we snapped the door open.

Over the next hour and 10 minutes, we took turns swinging and smashing at the wall. It made a god awful racket, and Gun could see the outline of the door itself as we kept hitting it (but out beating at it had broken the opening mechanism so we now HAD to smash it open).

However after all that time, the wall shook and we heard a deep reptilian ANGRY voice on the other side of the door yell out, “STOP MAKING SO MUCH DAMNED NOISE!!!”

Fuck, dragon and we made it mad.

Then we heard an inrushing of air.

“RUN!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”” the party booked off back down the secret passage as Netherithraxus let forth a blast of dragon breath from the other side of the secret door, melting the stone there and fusing the door shut in place.

Back in the Warriors’ room, we closed the other secret door and sighed. We’d now have to go and use the narrow passage. So we made our way through the quiet kobold warren one last time. We moved packs and drew up in line, Fjord going first. And then we entered.

Narrow passage wandered about a bunch. East, south, east, south, then west. Atlas grew cramped and exhausted and the party had to rest for a bit before daring to try again. It was an hour and a half of crawling and sweating before the winding kobold sized passage opened up to a larger cave and we could stand again.

40’ at least, 15’ ceiling. There were 6 very burned to a crisp skeletal kobolds here. A check of them over led us to believe they had been dragon killed a day or two ago. This was it. The passage to the east went off and we could see scrapes in the ceiling, floor, and walls that the dragon had come down this far, probably many times. Fjord was particularly excited we had to be close.

This meant we had to set our plan before we go to the dragon because the geas on the sword would make any planning at that time moot. So. We handed out bless spells to everyone who could cast. Atlas let us know that the dragon probably had natural magic resistance but also, its scales would probably need magic to hit it – otherwise damage done to it would be severely muted. We went through our magic weapons, taking stock.

Kobold chief’s flaming short sword, dragon’s bane claymore, Gavin Ahshit’s enchanted spear, enchanted brass knuckles found in the temple of Aine, Aine’s horse bow and now the 5 +2 arrows, and finally the enchanted dagger that Nevah had and hadn’t mentioned. Gun went right over there and took it out. “Really?” he asked. “We need this now.” Nevah was not happy.

With 8 of us possibly fighting, it was going to be Atlas and Carl without an enchanted weapon to bear, so they would be primarily using spells and support. We had Carl and Cara’s similar resist and protection from fire spells and a host of healing potions. We were as ready as we were going to be.

We left the main cave and headed east, following the long wide and tall corridor as it slowly led us closer and closer to the dragon. 11:10 AM on Icemonth the 20th.

Meet 140, Adv 16, 11/08/25

Heatmonth the 4th, 289 of the 29th age. 10:55 AM. The party discussed plans. Déjà vu all over again. This time? Get past the Cave Bear but in such a way that we avoid conflict. We still had Hide from animals up and the thought was to cast it on the animals as well, and Shim was going to need an invisibility spell as well.

We settled on a two fold plan – summon a trio of monsters with Shim’s spells, and hide from animals, carry the small ones, and sneak past the bear while it’s fighting. 11:40 AM – we set the operation in place. In succession, Shimlagesh managed to summon an Ogre, a Giant Weasel, and then a Giant Tick. He ordered them all to charge ahead of us and engage the bear, forcing it to the north and east if at all possible. An invisibility followed and we snatched up every animal and ran through the bear lair.

It was big. The bear was huge, it was tearing the tick to shreds. We ran past bones and carcasses of moose and deer. The chamber was sizable but as per Shim’s older map of the Donnegarten Stronghold, the east end of the cavern did indeed split east and north, and east and south – we took that direction as the battle raged on behind us, the bear was decidedly winning.

The rough cavern also showed more odd signs of burns and melted stone. Originally there were lots of webs here like curtains, but in this time, it was just rough terrain. Eventually we arrived at a larger cave. To the west was a 15’ cliff and a smaller chamber up there. In our time it was the lift control room. To the east where we knew the deep square stair lined pit was, was instead a sloped area and then a 20 to 25’ diameter hole that went down into the gloom.

We lit a real torch to go along with the ever burning one and split up to check the area out. Up on the cliff area was a cave barely 20’ diameter, the ceiling made the clear area only 5 or 6’ high. Lots of beetle carapaces were here, brown and iridescent green. Whatever beetles they were (2’ oval?) the meat had been scooped out. Wilhelm guessed something caught them elsewhere and brought them here to eat them, leaving 20 or 30 shells behind.

As for the rest of the room, nothing of note but the pit area. The slope was 30 degrees and the hole went down for a bit. We augered a hole in the wall and then Darius drove a piton deep and home. We ate lunch and then looked at the hole. Lighting a pebble, we dropped it down. It rang off the wall after 30’, then maybe again, the light was dim and gone and it rang maybe 3 or 4 times before bouncing to a stop. Shim frowned. According to his original notes, the hole was almost 300’ down to the bottom, but this rock didn’t even go maybe half that distance.

It was guessed that before the dwarves got here, the gap down to the crack was not a straight line and digging was most likely going to be needed. For now, we needed supplies from the hut and Shim was very low on spells. Going through his blessings, Captain Asher had a “nap” spell – puts someone in a very deep unwakeable sleep for an hour, but it’s the equivalent of 8. Our gnome would get his spells back.

We did that, Captain Asher could put 5 people to sleep – a few that had some damage from the wyvern fight rested as well after we took out the block and tackle, pick, shovel, sledge hammer, and all the rope. Shim mended 4 of the ropes to one continuous length, knowing after his nap he could do the rest.

When the nap ended, Shim did his spells – but no one actually healed. Weird. We doled out some healing and then went to the pit. We hooked the block and tackle to the piton, fed the ropes through the pulleys and it was going to be Shim and Connal riding it down. A light spell was cast and Darius took over the block and tackle lowering ability. It was 3 times the rope feed but only needed half the strength to move them. They went down slow. The chimney did indeed rock back and forth often. And the stones were sharp in many places. A difficult and dangerous climb for anyone.

By 2:40 they made it to the bottom. Shim shot off a dancing lights to signal they were safe and they looked about a little bit. Ceiling was 25’ tall here, chamber was barely 25’ diameter, and in the dim light, looked like it sloped off heavily to the east. Also some sort of breeze was blowing towards us. “They coming down?” Shim asked. Connal shrugged.

Up above Captain Asher said after 10 minutes, “Now what?” Darius was bringing the tackle back up. “We’re not going back down there now, that’s stupid. What was the plan?” The Captain shook his head. “Didn’t exactly think this part through.” When the tackle was back at the top he climbed on and said, “Lower me, I’ll go tell them to come back up.”

It took time and when down there, Captain Asher let the other 2 know that it was late enough in the day and to not risk everyone going down now. So it took time to cycle the 3 of them back up but one done, we unhooked the block and tackle from the piton and then dragged it and the 80 pounds of rope to the base of the cliff. The conversation then touched on – how are we going to get all the animals down tomorrow? Ugh.

We then all climbed up there and by 6:30 PM, set up the hut. We ate, had Wilhelm use a spell to refill everyone’s water skin, and then went to bed.

We awoke pretty early the next day on Heatmonth the 5th – and again – we did not heal anything while resting. At this point we had a work around but the timing was going to be tight. The hut could be opened for a total of 12 hours, up to 3 times a day. We hadn’t closed it. Wilhelm and Eoghan talked to their pets that they were NOT to leave the hut and would be taking a nap, then would be woken up by Wilhelm within the hour.

Agreeing, we napped them and closed the hut. Time was ticking. 1 hour they would wake up and if they were still in the hut while it was hurtling through the dark recesses of Astral space, they would be insane. The block and tackle was rehooked to the piton and Shim and Connal went down. Then the tackle was raised and Wilhelm went with the hut. At the bottom we looked at the time and in 20 minutes, he opened the hut before the animals woke up and then led them out. Crises averted, pretty close to 12 hours time (11 hours 15 minutes), and 2 more openings of the hut for today.

The last one was Darius when went down by 6:35. Then, Connal and Shim self propelled themselves with the tackle slowly hand over hand to the top. They unhooked the block and tackle, Connal coiled the very heavy rope around himself and pretty damned close to over loaded, Shim riding on his chest, they stepped out into space and fell.

At 30’, the monk ran his hands against the passing wall with alacrity, slowing his descent enough to get past the first jog but was then falling too fast. That left Shim to enact one of the feather falls from his ring, dropping their velocity and they slowly floated down the remaining 84’ to the bottom. 7 AM.

The east side of the room was a 60 degree angle slope, and according to our guess, 100’ linear, 85’ vertical. Shim’s map showed a bridge over a chasm with falling water somewhere down there, and maybe a passage south? Darius took a torch and went to go first. Shim had enough feather falls to power everyone a safe trip down.

The fighter turned, faced the slope, and Shim cast on him. He slid easily to the bottom. But on the way close to the end, he heard flapping and turning, he could see 2’ wide insectoid looking birds with huge needle like noses flying in at a rapid pace from the high ceiling here. 10 of them. Stirges.

“Hey! Stirges! Be careful!” he said as they attacked. A few managed to get through his armor, nose deep into his flesh, and they started to suck, drawing his blood out. “On my way!” Captain Asher called, tapping Shim who Feather Falled the half elf. Darius smashed two of the stirges in him while another 15 stirges flew out of the cracks in the ceiling to join the others down here. The battle was joined, the 2 fighters with their superior armor avoiding most of any possible attacks.

Trusting his cats to handle the slope, Wilhelm went next racing down there the help, also feather falling. The fight was expanding as it seemed 40 or so stirges were now in the fray. Darius and Asher were methodical though, slaughtering a stirge or two every round. The cats got in on it, 4 of them leaping up and engaging more of the flying fiends. Wilhelm was fighting as well but his lesser armor was not as effective in stopping the stirge’s assault on him. Eoghan came down next, Nate was to follow and then Rhygar, with Shim and Connal having to be last.

Eoghan was doing his best but while tracking one of the stirges, he let go, missing as it corkscrewed out of the way, and critically shot Darius in the back. “What the!?!? FUCK!!””

“Damn it,” Eoghan muttered, taking another arrow out. “Let me try again.” Even in pain, Darius fought on. The mountain lion, the lynx, Lou, Wilhelm, Asher, Eoghan, and Darius all had stirges in their bodies, drinking their blood, weakening them round after round. BUT – enough of them had been slain that the remaining 12 still able to fly took off, racing up in order to escape. Eoghan shot two of them fleeing and the rest of us tried to pull the stirges off those still in the fight. Darius’ inadvertently did squeeze one too hard, making it vomit inside Wilhelm’s gut wound – that was going to be very bad later.

Finally it was over, we all were down here. Some of us were in terrible condition, a few hit points left. Wilhelm was able to remove the arrow from Darius’ back with only a small extra wound. We regrouped, grabbed what arrows we could, Darius giving Eoghan the stink eye, and discussed what was to go next. 7:20 AM, Heatmonth the 5th.