Chapter 1-9: Venomfang

General Summary

The party took a short rest in the ruined general store in Thundertree to heal some of their wounds from the fight with the spiders. As they looked around the store, they found an unfortunate elf adventurer, cocooned and drained, in the spider's nest. Naturally they took everything of value and left his corpse hanging there. They then made their way towards the dragon's tower.
As they investigated the ruin, they found it unoccupied. Seizing the opportunity, they took position and started to plot. They were just discussing building a giant snare when the dragon, Venomfang, returned. In a brief burst of conversation, they managed to irritate the creature and the fight began. Clootie threw a dagger at the dragon, which buried itself in the creature's neck, annoying the beast slightly more. Venomfang then tore at Ramas with it's jaws, and slashed at Ryoko. Miaug loosed an arrow from her vantage point at the top of the ruin. The arrow pierced the dragon's neck, finding a gap between the scales, causing it to howl in pain. Ramas swiped at the dragon with his dagger. He missed and dove back into cover. Aetilius leapt off the ruined wall and struck with Talon, sinking the blade into flesh, causing the dragon to bellow again. Ryoko then let loose a blast of flame from her mouth, burning the dragon. Clootie darted out of cover and tried to climb the creature's back, but the dragon threw her against the wall with a flick of it's tail. Venomfang spun around and loosed a blast of poisonous gas from his mouth at Ryoko, Aetilius and Clootie. Aetilius and Clootie held their breath and managed to avoid breathing the cloud, however Ryoko immediately slumped to the ground unconscious. Miaug fired another arrow into the dragon's back, between the wings. Ramas then slipped behind the dragon, and sliced the back of its legs, causing the beast to stumble. Aetilus leapt between Ryoko and the dragon, and raised his shield. He turned to Ryoko, and a soft golden glow spread from his outstretched palm to surround her crumpled form. Her eyes fluttered open and she stood up. Immediately she transforms into a Dire Wolf and leaps at the dragon, tearing at his flesh with her teeth. Clootie then spun past the dragon, swiping at his uninjured leg with her staff. She caught him behind his knee and drove him to the ground.
As Venomfang attempted to stand, Clootie ran up, leapt off his leg, spinning in the air and driving her knee into his head. Venomfang leapt into the air to try to flee. Ryoko tore at him with her teeth, causing him to flinch as he moved. Then, with a beat of his own wings, Aetilius rose into the air with the dragon, and plunged Talon into it's chest. He then fell back to the ground, holding the blade, slicing through Venomfang's chest scales. With an anguished shriek, the dragon flew off towards the horizon.
The party then searched the tower, and found the dragon's hoard. In addition to some gold and silver, they found a rusty light hammer and a black wooden box. On inspection, they found the hammer was inscribed with dwarven runes, which read Kulog, or Thunder.
Opening the box, they found a small sculpture - a wooden disc, mounted with gold inlaid gears, and four jade pyramids; and a tightly rolled scroll. They opened the scroll and found it was the confession of the wizard who lived in this tower, Alain Revenmar, who had tried to save his wife Amelia from an unidentified disease. He was tricked by an entity known as Iquath into performing a ritual which warped Amelia into a monstrous creature, and weakened the integrity of the veil around her. He couldn't bring himself to kill her, so he trapped the creature in a demiplane, and begged whoever found the letter to deal with Amelia. Also wrapped up in the letter was a dagger with a heart shaped ruby in it's handle. Aetilius picked up the dagger. When he touched the statue he was teleported into the demiplane where Amelia was imprisoned. However, the ruby was left behind. The ruby allowed communication with the dagger, allowing Aetilius to speak to the rest of the party. As they turned the pyramids on the statue, the platforms in the demiplane where Aetilius was trapped also turned, opening up new avenues of travel. But, when the party turned the statue to allow access to the middle pyramid, an tangible pool of darkness began to spill out. This coalesced into a creature with five spiked arms. Aetilius tried to speak to it, and he (unsurprisingly) figured out it was Amelia. The creature attacked and killed him. As he died, he reappeared back in the first chamber. This allowed him to access the central room, where he found a huge jade heart on a pedestal. He drove the dagger into the heart, destroying the prison, and releasing both Aetilius and Amelia. Amelia then attempts to attack the party.
During the fight, Clootie grabbed Amelia by the head, and delivered a Gun Stun to her, dropping her face first into the floor and stunning her for a round. In response, when she recovered, Amelia grabbed Clootie with all five of her spikes, catching her in a deadly embrace and crushing the life out of her. Miaug then leapt off her perch, somersaulting in midair and loosing an arrow directly down into Amelia's skull, killing her and releasing the unconscious gnome. Ryoko then healed Clootie, and the group elected to make camp in the tower.
During Clootie's watch, while she wasn't paying attention, Droop the goblin disappeared into the forest - taking the Staff of Defence with him.