Session 89 Report: Chloracridara

General Summary

Session 89 – Wednesday July 24, 2024: The Dragon Chloracridara

4-hour Exploration/Boss Battle session 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6:

It is the 4th day of the month of Alturiak (The Claw of winter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Feb.)

• Ajani– High Elf, L15 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Cassidy – Human, L15Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L16 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L15 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L15 Paladin – Will Johnson
• Seften Mitcaver – Human, L15 Cleric – Jacob Munson(Remote)

The shadows

The party started examining their surroundings. Cassidy determined that the destroying of the liches stopped the progress of the spread of the Shadowfell, but there were no signs that it actually reversed the process. They knew the library was immense and it might contain information on how to reverse the process, but they first wanted to finish exploring. The party searched around and found one more room that they hadn’t yet to explore.

The crypt

The room was unlit with 6 stone sarcophagi filliing the center of the room. A plaque at the front of the room read: The Sorcerers who gave their life essence to bring Kortar back. Each of the Sarcophagi had their own plaque and read:

• Dorinthal - Failed to be a lich and all.
• Pelenor - Couldn't take it anymore.
• Xancer - A Necromancer who wanted to be a dancer.
• Wervyn - Ironically, taken out by a shadow Wyvern
• Naira - The Hottest of the 3. Unfortunately, she spontaneously combusted.
• Kalendra - The last decent female. May Kortar rise soon!

They opened each of the sarcophagi one at time and simply found dead bodies. The first one had clearly been dead for a long time and the others progressively newer. But even the last one had been dead for quite some time. Cassidy took a pound of rotten flesh from Kalendra.

What next?

The party discussed what to do next. They knew they had accomplished the task they set out to do but they remembered the Dragon Chloracridara was still at large. Gazlowe suggested they seek the Dragon and kill it. They knew they had to find the Mistmaster and eventually see if they could reverse the shadow. Seften was not super keen on finding another ancient dragon since the last one nearly killed them. Gazlowe said, “But now I have this!” and held up his arcane cannon. He told everyone to leave the Crypt room and then shot a line of acid at the sarcophagi, destroying them all.   Gisella thanked the party and left to go find her father. The party went to the labs and continued to do some research. Ajani wanted to solicit the druid Ogian and the Mistmaster to help cast spells that could reverse the process. Cassidy learned that they would need more flesh from a celestial to help with those spells and she found some evidence that some flesh from the liches would also help. Seften prayed to Snuffelsnort and Snuffelsnort suggested they talk to the Empyrean Stag Altair from whom they took the heart.   Ajani cast legend lore to learn about Chloracridara. He learned that she’s a green dragon who lives in the forest. He learned of the grove where she lives. He also learned that the entrance to her lair is under a lake in the grove. They spent a full day and learned many new skills (they leveled up to level 15.) They spent the night in the keep and in the morning went back through a shadow into the material plane.

The Mistmaster

They arrived in the material plane and were greeted by an eerie quiet. There were no bird songs, no insect noises, just the sound of the wind through the trees. They examined the trees and many of them were wilting. Then Mistmaster walked around a corner and confronted the Stone Bearers. He was sad and angry at the devastation. Gazlowe explained that they stopped the spread of the shadow but they’re going to need help to reverse the process.   The Mistmaster was grateful and offered to bring the party back to the Citadel of the Mist. He said that several of his friends are dead, but he does a few remaining friends at his keep that will provide them with food. Unfortunately, he explained, all deer, rabbits, and other meat food sources are dead. He walked them around a bit and showed them dead bodies everywhere.   The party asked the Mistmaster if he could fix the forest. He explained that he lives in the woods, but Ogian is the real Druid and Orist is fairly powerful. The party explained that they learned some rituals, but they need the help from Druids and celestials to help. The Mistmaster again offered the party rest at the Citadel, but the party decided they should go after the Dragon first. They gave the Mistmaster the collection of books they found on how to reverse the Shadowfell issue for him to look over. The Mistmaster asked the party to also check on the situation at the grandfather tree to be sure the fey and others who live there are okay.

The Grandfather tree

The party headed west toward the grandfather tree. They saw no signs of birds or small animals but they did see a few larger creatures. They heard dire wolves howling in the distance and knew that the balance of life in this area was greatly disrupted. Gazlowe asked Ajani if he could pull a rabbit out of his hat. Ajani had apparently skipped that class. The party was attacked by a large bear who was seemed very hungry. They had no problems killing it but it just underscored the death in the area.   By dusk they made their way to the area of the Grandfather tree. They met an elf named Collanate. She explained that the trees in the east are dying but so far, the Grandfather tree was unaffected. Collaniate called out and the Gnome Fastion approached. He nodded at the party a bit coldly. He told them Altair (the Empyrean stag they had met previously) was gone. He explained that Calypso had come and took Altair back into the heavens. Calypso (another Empyrean Stag) was taking Altair’s place. Calypso returned with the lightbender Aten. But then the vampires came and overpowered Calypso and Aten. With so many dead the fey could not defend them.   The party questioned Fastion about the Vampires, but he had very few details other than, “They were vampires, evil, with sharp pointy teeth.” He expressed his impatience with the Stone Bearers for affecting Altair in the first place. Gazlowe, aggressively explained that the Stone Bearers are trying to do their best to save everyone. Fastion sighed and relented. He apologized and explained that it’s been a rough couple of days and most of his friends are dead. He told them, “If you really want to help, Save Calypso and Aten. The Vampires took them to Chloracridara’s lake.”   The Stone Bearers told Fastion that the Green Dragon Chloracridara is becoming a Shadow Dragon. Fastion explained that her lake has become a poisonous acidic stew that has killed almost everything in it. Fastion offered to show the party where the lake is. He summoned 2 large bears who escorted the party to the lake.

Chloracridara’s lake.

The party spent time trying to make a plan on how to get through the lake and into the lair. They considered making a submarine, put everyone in the portable hole and have Cassidy swim to the bottom of the lake or even draining the lake somehow. Gazlowe stuck his toe into the lake and realized that the poison could kill them if the spent too much time in the lake.   Ajani came up with the idea to implant a thought in the dragon via a Dream. He cast Dream and implanted a thought deep within the Dragon’s mind. He created a vision of 2 men driving a horse driven cart that was carrying a large amount of gold through the forest near Chloracridara’s lake. One of the chests fell off the cart exposing the large amount of gold. In the dream the men picked up the gold and put it back on the cart but then a wheel broke on the cart. Ajani let the dream fade. He told the party what he had done, and they waited to see if the dragon would come out to see if the dream was real. The party set up their camp and waited.

Chloracridara took the bait.

The party spread out in groups with Juan and Gazlowe in the East, Seften and Ajani in the west and Cassidy in between. They party had just settled down to take a rest when Chloracridara erupted from the lake. The dragon headed directly past the party for the area of the forest where she had the vision of the broken cart. The party got up and prepared for the dragon’s return.   Gazlowe setup his arcane cannon and the others prepared to ambush her on her return. Chloracridara saw that her vision was merely a dream, and on her return, she spotted the party setting up an ambush. The dragon zoomed in to attack.

Dragon Fight!

Gazlowe shot the cannon releasing a bolt of lightning. In retaliation, Chloracridara spewed her poison breath on the party. Only Juan and Bird were poisoned but Ajani, Bird, Juan and Seften were corrupted by her. Cassidy hit the dragon with her crossbow and branded her. Since it was nighttime and she was in dim light, she didn’t take as much damage from as they thought she should. Ajani cast a gravity sinkhole at the dragon and she avoided being pulled in. Jaun mounted the new and improved Bird and flew up to the dragon. Gazlowe grabbed onto bird’s leg and flew up with him. Bird and Juan attacked the dragon.   Chloracridara summoned 3 large pillars from the ground near the party making everyone withing 10 feet of them vulnerable to psychic damage. Seften cast Holy Aura helping protect himself, Ajani and Cassidy. Gazlowe swing from Birds leg and leapt onto the dragon. He pulled out the staff Icewrath and plunged it into the dragon’s back, expending every charge in the spear and massively wounding her with 100 points of damage. Feeling the pain in her back she bit Gazlowe, then swiped him with her claw pushing him off her back. Gazlowe landed with a thud on the ground 60’ below.   Cassidy continued to fire crossbow bolts. Ajani hit her with a lightning chromatic orb. The dragon batted her wings and teleported Seften and Cassidy 120 feet away. Bird swooped down clawed at the dragon. Juan hopped off bird and onto the dragon’s back. Seften dashed back to the party. Gazlowe cast fly on himself and flew up to the dragon. The dragon slashed at Juan and tossed him to the ground. Juan landed hard and fell unconscious. The dragon cast dispel magic on Seften removing the holy aura. Ajani cast another chromatic orb leaving Chloracridara bloodied. Ajani looked at her eyes and knew she was going to flee.   Bird landed a critical claw attack against the dragon. Seften looked at the party. Juan was unconscious and Ajani was looking bad. Seften cast heal on Juan. Gazlowe flew back up to the dragon and placed the ice bomb on the back of the dragon. He backed away and ignited the bomb. The bomb exploded and froze the dragon’s wings. The dragon took the cold damage and then fell to the ground restrained, landing on Juan.   Unable to use his wings, the dragon regained her poison breath and breathed directly at Gazlowe. Gazlowe took the poison hit and the dragon then dispelled Gazlowe’s flying spell making Gazlowe fall to the ground with another thud. Cassidy shot two bolts at the dragon. The Dragon screamed dealing psychic damage to everyone around her. This killed bird, knocked out Ajani, Juan and Cassidy.   Seften cast mass cure wounds healing himself, Cassidy and Juan. Gazlowe, running out of powerful magic items yelled, “You’ve taken everything cool I had! Take this too!” and he used his necklace of fireballs with all 7 beads casting max level fireball at the dragon. The dragon used her legendary save taking some psychic damage along with some fire damage. She stood up, struck Juan knocking him unconscious again and started to fly away. She was very badly bloodied and only made it about 40 feet away. Cassidy said, “Oh no you don’t!” Cassidy cast chill touch and killed the dragon!