Kobold Hall: Session 4

Exhausted by their efforts in clearing the manor house of the kobolds, the party decided that sleep and a meal was in order. They cleared an area of the detritus left behind by the kobolds, and settled down for a rest. For the next few hours, they chatted about their exploits.

“Us, a bunch of itinerant caravan guards,” remarked Thorfinn, “defeating a horde of kobolds. Who'd have thought it?” So happy at their victory was he that he didn't notice Eilonwy's cold, appraising stare.

Eventually, Eilonwy roused the others and they set out to discover what other dangers awaited them. Opening the secret door they had found earlier, Jia again scouted ahead of the others. The passage was rough, low and dank. Only in places was there any evidence of the walls being hand carved, and most of the rock was covered in a slimy grey mould. As they moved along the passageway, an unnatural coldness crept over them, and the grey mould was replaced by a rime of frost.

Having travelled some two hundred yards or so, Jia espied ahead a natural cavern, glistening faintly. Carefully creeping forwards, she arrived in a natural cavern, with ice covered walls, and a frozen pool in the centre. From the roof of the cavern some forty feet above, light shone down through a shaft that reached to the surface. All was silent.

She moved forwards to examine the pool, while the others entered the chamber behind her. As she bend down at the edge of the pool, from behind a wide pillar of rock sprang a young white dragon, some twenty five feet long, with wings thirty feet wide. Screaming in Draconian, it danced forwards across the surface of the frozen pool, it's claws giving it purchase on the slippery ice. From its mouth it breathed a gust of shockingly cold air at the adventurers, like a blizzard from the northern wastes.

Recovering from the icy assault, Jia quickly fired her crossbow at the dragon, but to no effect. The front line fighters arrayed themselves around the dragon, and began a barrage of blows, aided for once by Thorfinn's staunch leadership. However, the dragon's leathery scaled hide turned aside many of the blows. Eilonwy and Kaza began a magical assault, with Kaza shouting, “Kaza casts her Sleep spell! The dragon is unaffected! Kaza curses!”

Jia crept behind the dragon and pulling out her short sword began stabbing at its tail. However, the dragon turned on her, and grabbing her in its claws picked her up and bit her viciously, icy white teeth sinking deep into her flesh. It dropped the unconscious Jia and turned back to Doomgrad and Gilee.

Eilonwy ran forwards to help the prone rogue, her healing magics sealing Jia's wounds and bringing her to conciousness. However, the dragon took the opportunity to fly out of reach of the fray, and once more opened its jaws to breathe icy shards of death at the party. This time, only Jia was hit, but not badly. Doomgrad moved to Jia, and saying “Don't worry, I'm going to touch you in that special way that only a paladin can touch a woman.” His caresses soon soothed away her hurts and eased her pain.

Following this disturbing cross species encounter, the close combat specialists ran forwards to engage the dragon once more, and Kaza also closed with the dragon. Shouting “Kaza casts Burning Hands at the dragon! Kaza has hit! And injured the dragon badly!”.

However, she had strayed within reach of the dragon's claws, and had to quickly duck below its attacks.

Doomgrad and Gilee, aided by Thorfinn, continued their unrelenting onslaught against the dragon. Sensing defeat, the dragon began to take off in an attempt to flee via the rock shaft in the chamber's roof, but its youth and inexperience proved to be its downfall. As it began to flap its wings, Doomgrad swung his longsword, and his blade pierced it's icy breast and impaled its heart. Crashing to the floor the dragon shuddered once, and died.

The adventurers were unable to believe what they had just accomplished. Doomgrad sat on an icy rock, and wiped his sword clean, contemplating his new title, “Doomgrad Dragonslayer”.

Once the shock had faded, they examined the room, looking for the dragon's fabled horde. All they found was an iron bound wooden chest, and the dragon's bedding which contained the green dragon hides that they had come to reclaim. Jia attempted to pick the lock, but the cold, and her injuries, meant she was unable to do so, so Thorfinn spent a few moments smashing the hinges with his warhammer. Inside they found a pile of gold coins, a pearl in a small felt bag (“I wonder if the bag is significant” enquired Jia), and a longsword in a black leather scabbard. This magical Longsword of Lifedrinking was regarded with some trepidation by the party.

“It is an evil thing, created by demonic powers,” said Doomgrad, drawing it and examining the dull grey blade and haft with black leather and dark gems. “I should take it. As a paladin I am most suited to resist its corrupting temptations.

“It is a blade crafted by men,” commented Gilee, “for dwarves or elves would not fashion such an evil thing. As a human it falls to me to dispose of such a terrible weapon, so I should take it.”

Kaza's eyes shone with a certain Dwarven curiosity. “As a wizard, Kaza should take the sword. Perhaps she can use her magical abilities to remove the taint.”

Thorfinn's desires were more obvious and less well hidden. “I can hardly hit a barn door when I'm holding the handle. I should take this as it would make me less crap.”

Jia was silent, as she shoved the cash and gems in her pouch while the others were otherwise engaged. It was only as she was prizing the teeth from the dragon's mouth that Eilonwy saw her and forced her to hand back the loot.

Bickering about the ownership of the sword, the party left the way they came, climbing back out of the kobold's lair into the early morning sun. Their argument was quickly stopped when they saw the remains of Carter the Unstoppable Cart Machine. Overnight, left tethered outside, he had become Carter the Easily Accessible Wolf Meal.

Distraught, they made their way back to the cart, untouched on the road where they had left it. Loading their gains on the cart, they dejectedly walked back to town pulling the cart behind them. The journey back to town took all day, and, exhausted, they arrived back at Fallcrest just before the gates to town were locked for the night.

Making their way back to the Silver Unicorn inn, all thoughts of collecting their rewards forgotten for the moment, they left the cart with the stable boy and went inside to find warmth and sustenance.

Inside they were greeted by Wisara Osterman, who saw them to a table and soon serving staff brought them an array of fine foods, roast chicken, roasted potatoes, sausages, steak and kidney pie, and fried fish with yamps and capers, and a supply of fine wines.

Once their bellies were full and their aches soothed by the alcohol, they began to smile at their good fortune. Dragon slayers! They were dragon slayers!

At that point a voice said “Thorfinn? Is that you, Thorfinn?” They turned to see a suave looking tiefling walking towards their table.

“Bakaan?” Thorfinn looked shocked.

“Thorfinn?” asked Eilonwy, “Is this a friend of yours?”

“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the Tiefling. “My name is Bakaan, and I am an old colleague of Thorfinn. We met some years ago at Warlord College in Suzail.”

“Warlord College?”

“Oh, yes, myself and Thorfinn were in the same classes in the first year of college. I myself have just qualified summa cum laude, and am looking for an adventuring party to join.” He sat down at the chair at the head of their table, and poured himself a goblet of wine. “So what happened when you dropped out at the end of the first year, Thorfinn? Did you find fortune as a merchant, as you claimed you would? Are these your employees?”

Eilonwy turned to Thorfinn. “You mean to say you never graduated from Warlord College?” she asked, stunned. “What was that certificate you showed me when I hired you?”

“Er, it was, it was my mumble-mumble-mumble,” he replied.

“Your what?”

“My dishonourable discharge papers. I forged them to say honourable discharge,” Thorfinn admitted.

Eilonwy turned red with anger, and pointed one finger at him. “Thorfinn. You're fired. Get out.” Thorfinn got up from the bench, picked up his pack, and left the inn.

“So, Bakaan”, the cleric said, turning to the tiefling. “You're a warlord looking for work, you say?”

Bakaan simply leant back in the chair, sipped his wine, and smiled.