Varus' Journal: Entry #5: There be Dragons Here!

Episode 5: There Be Dragons Here!

By: Stan Lingle

1The vicious melee in the vault was followed by a nightmarish running battle through the sewers while retreating back to the keep. Cultists and kobolds attacked, but could not organize serious resistance before we made it back to the secured portions of the sewers. The guards closed the portal behind us. Once we were back in the keep, our group stumbled to the infirmary. Basel, Tomeck, and Varus had festering wounds from their injuries. Tyala had been poisoned, and was delirious with fever. We were resting in hospital beds in the infirmary when Flidais returned from the forest. Overjoyed to see us all alive, she ran in, laughing and smiling, calling each of us by name, her hair flouncing as she skipped in. Inspirational music swelled from everywhere and nowhere, as if an elven orchestra were playing nearby, and sunlight streamed into the infirmary. Time seemed to slow as Flidais jumped joyously from bed to bed, her infectious laughter quickly spreading through our merry little band. We laughed for some time and finally fell silent after a while, thinking of the task to come.

Basel broke the silence.

“Now I remember! I can lay hands and cure everyone!” Another round of laughter ensued.

We healed up a bit with a few potions, but there was no opportunity for rest. If the assault could not be stopped soon, the town would be destroyed. We had to act quickly and decisively. The magic shop and the armory seemed like the highest priorities. We needed the magical items in the magic shop to help even the odds, and we had to stop them from falling into enemy hands. We also had to get ballistae bolts from the armory to repel the dragon, for it would surely attack the keep at some point.

Tyala disguised herself as a cultist to help us get through the town. If we ran into enemy forces, she would act as if she had captured us. Fortunately, the magic shop, Bizarre Bazaar, was right next to the keep. We snuck up on it, and seeing no outside resistance, and quickly launched an attack. There were several cultists and kobolds with the mark of a dragon wing in the magic shop; they were going through the various magic items and sorting them into different piles.

Tyala surprised one cultist with an arrow while Varus sang a song of sleep on 3 of the nasty little kobolds. Flidais moved in, fired true at the second cultist and then hit him with a hail of thorns. As he reeled away from that, Tomeck finished him with a firebolt. Basel charged into the shop as Tyala took out another kobold with a sneak attack.

Another kobold rubbed a ring on his finger…and disappeared.

“Damn it, it’s got a ring of invisibility. Stop it before it escapes!” shouted Varus.

Flidais instinctively fired her bow at the disappearing kobold. Unfortunately, Varus was between her and the kobold, which she realized as the she released the shot. Varus saw it and instinctively twisted out of the way. By luck or providence, he spun into the kobold, grabbed it, and pushed it into the line of fire. The arrow struck, and the kobold became visible. Incredulously, the ranger’s arrow had pinned the kobold’s hand to doorpost, and it hung there, dead. Tomeck went up and felt its fingers until he found the ring of invisibility and removed it. This was a useful item, indeed.

We quickly inventoried the contents of the magical shop. There were more magic items than we had ever seen; in fact, they were more magic items than we possessed all together! There was a shield made of adamantium, 3 wands of cure wounds, 2 wands of firebolt, a triangle of Temporary HP, a pair of fabulous pumped-up pumps with wings, a wand of dancing lights, a pair of unidentified boots, a heavy metal shield, a quiver, and a bag of holding. We distributed most of the items and put the remaining items in the bag of holding.

Fortunately, the armory was next to the magic shop. As we approached, the huge green dragon flew overhead. Everyone froze. After we were sure the dragon had passed, we made our way to the door. Tyala picked the lock on the second try, and we headed in. Much of the ordnance had been removed for the defense of the town, but there were 3 crates of ballistae bolts. Each one contained 10 bolts, and they were quite heavy. Carrying them in the open would be slow and very noticeable. Fortunately, they just fit into the mouth of the bag of holding, so we loaded them up.

As we finished, Tomeck spotted 2 small green dragons flying overhead. Wyrmlings, very young offspring of Sythren'daal from the hatchery, no doubt. They spotted the open door and Tomeck, and dove from the sky to investigate. The sorcerer bolted to the back door of the armory and tried to kick it down. He promptly bounced off; it was a heavy and well-made, as you might expect of the of an armory. Basel dashed forward to bar the front door, but before he made it, one of the wyrmlings flew in door and landed. It may have been much smaller than its sire, but it was still a formidable foe. Flidais was near the door; the vile wyrm opened its maw and breathed nauseating green gas on Flidais. She drew her short swords, but was choking on the gas and could not attack effectively. Varus ran up and barred the door, just as the other wyrmling landed and smashed into it. The door held, but the wyrmling continued to slam against it. Tyala drew an arrow from the random quiver and hit with a sneak attack; the arrow splintered, doing more damage. Basel charged in and swung with his mighty lion hammer but suffered from performance anxiety and missed badly. A firebolt whizzed the wyrmling head as it bit Basel. Basel laughed in reply and spit on the wyrmling. Varus missed with his bowshot, but distracted it as Flidais struck with both short swords. Tyala used her thieves’ tools but could not open the door. She, Basel, and Tomeck all missed as the wyrmling turned and bit Flidais. Varus sang a song of dissonance at it, but the wyrmling shrugged off much of the damage. The rogue failed on the door lock again…but landed another arrow with her sneak attack. Basel missed, but Tomeck fired a firebolt and killed the wyrmling.

Varus readied an arrow and fired into the second wyrmling as it burst through the door. It breathed on Flidais, Varus, and Tyala, who were not incapacitated, but took damage. Tyala failed on the lock and her sneak attack. Basel shield charged the wyrmling and knocked it prone, bringing his hammer down hard. Tomeck healed Flidais as Varus pulled his rapier, stepped in, and stabbed the wyrmling. The wyrmling didn’t like that turned to bite Varus. Flidais healed herself and cast Hunter’s Mark, but no one could hit as we dodged and circled the beast. Sorcerer and ranger finally hit with firebolt and arrow. The dragon bit Varus again, and the bard went down. The others quickly finished the second wyrmling.

Tomeck brought Varus around with the healing wand, and then the bard used the magical triangle to give everyone temp HP. During the combat, Flidais realized her boots were boots of stealth. We quickly made it back to the keep before anything else spotted us.

As we arrived, Sir Klavin was making a speech to the assembled troops, raising their morale and trying to convince them to commit to a charge to repel the enemy.

“We must strike now, and strike together. We must drive this enemy from our lands. Help me take back what is ours. It is not their right to take what we have built. We must fight, fight to the last if need be, for these creatures are evil. We must fight as one. Fight with me!”

“Sir Klavin…we have something that can help!” Varus announced.

Everyone turned around to see us standing there with three crates of ballistae bolts. A murmur went through the crowd.

Sir Klavin grinned. “Well done. You know we can use them. Help my men load the ballistae, we can pin him down. Weaken him and force him away.” Klavin’s inspiration and the timely arrival of the ballistae bolts motivated the assembled soldiers and militia. He commanded them to their posts, and then came over to us.

“It’s so good to see you back safely. Now, I must ask you, did you recover the silver dragon mask? Do you have it? Is it safe? Is it sound?”

Varus spoke up. “Sir Klavin, we need to know it’s powers before returning it.”

“It is a family heirloom. I am responsible for it.”

“I can appreciate that,” said Varus, “but surely you can appreciate that if you have been compromised, it would be utterly foolish of us to hand it over. We have trusted you and fought hard to defend your town. Now we ask that you trust us. The town hangs in the balance. Tell us of the mask!”

Varus’s powerful words affected Sir Klavin, and his expression softened.

“Yes, you have certainly earned my trust. The silver dragon mask is a dragon paragon mask. It means that another silver dragon…would regard the wearer as an equal. It has…other powers as well. I promise that I will only use those powers to defend the town and its people. You have nothing to fear from me.”

Varus looked at the others, then looked at Sir Klavin and handed him the mask. He took it and put it in his breastplate.

“Thank you. Now let’s get those bolts to the roof. The keep is already under attack!”

We carried the bolts up to the roof of the keep. There were 4 ballistae, one on each corner. 20 archers lined the parapets, and footmen and archers were positioned in front of the keep.

Indeed, the battle for the keep had already started. Winged kobolds wheeled around, some carrying large rocks and dropping them on the soldiers like evil little bombers. Others grabbed people, flew them up, and dropped them in front of the soldiers defending the gate. We manned the unmanned ballistae and distributed the bolts among the four. Tomeck, Basel, and Tyala loaded their ballistae and waited for the dragon to be in range. Sir Klavin made it to the roof.

Sythren'daal dove and breathed gaseous death on the soldiers in front of the keep. Flidais dropped two kobolds out of the sky with her bow. Unfortunately, as Varus pulled his bow to shoot at a kobold, his bowstring broke, and several kobolds dropped rocks on people.

The ballistae fired as the great wyrm flew by, and three of the four bolts hit. The dragon did not seem injured as it wheeled around. Basel fired his ballista and the bolt scored a solid hit. Tyala loaded a ballista and then took out a kobold with her bowshot. While the ballistae kept firing, Flidais, Tomeck, and Tyala kept taking down flying kobolds.

Now Sythren’daal wheeled, climbed, then dove towards the roof. It was then that we saw Sir Klavin pull out the silver mask and put it on. He erupted out of his armor and transformed into a silver dragon! It was an amazing and inspiring sight for all the defenders, and a roar went up. He leapt into the sky to attack Sythren’daal as two more ballista bolts struck the mighty green dragon.

Basel called upon his god Rao and prayed for his assistance fighting such a chaotic evil monster. Rao heard his prayers and guided his aim. The bolt struck true and pierced Sythren’daal’s wing at a most sensitive point. The wyrm’s demeanor changed noticeably with that hit; it went from imperious to…afraid? At that moment, Klavin slammed into him, silver dragon ripping with teeth and claws.

The green dragon was overwhelmed and retreated at full speed. Suddenly…it disappeared! Standing in the road in its place was a man wearing a green dragon mask. Evidently, it was a counterpart to Sir Klavin’s silver mask, and that man was the leader of the cult. He turned and disappeared into the night. Another roar went up from the defenders. The attackers near the castle began to retreat. With the defeat of the dragon, the attack on the keep was repulsed.