Session 54: Blood, Snow, & Flame

General Summary

Magic Johnson is given one of Odila Vallos's Bag of Transference at Kayl's suggestion so that, should the party find the Power Core Johnson needs for the Emerald Dragon's Eye they can immediately transfer it to him—as well as conduct any kind of mercantile business they might need with him while on the go utilizing Sending and the Bag.

As the party decides to track the Goblins through the snow, Hyperion continues to grumble about the sorry state of their food and how much he desires to hunt and kill to eat.

Kayl, while looking over their maps, comes up with a few options to get to Lyonesse City, on the West coast of the continent. They could charter a boat to sail to the Sea of Wings and take the overland route through the Scarred Path again; they could sail the long way all the way around the southern coast and brave pirates, or they could find a large enough city to hire a powerful magic user to cast a greater teleportation spell to send them to Neo Vaxis or Lyonesse.

Bengt Sunwalker summons Gorthok Helmsplitter to ease the travel, and the Axebeak and Hyperion grate against each other a bit as the traditionalism of the old-timer bird and the aggressive ego of the young upstart dragon cause friction in the Sunwalker ranks. Eventually Hyperion stalks away in a huff and Bengt give him lead to fly on ahead and scout, as he can easily glide between the snowy ridges much faster than the party can trudge through the snow (even with Kayl's Water Walking spell.)

After a few hours, Odila notices a small tendril of smoke snaking into the clear blue sky ahead of them, and calls for the party to stop. As Bengt snaps out of his zoning-out, he realizes it's been awhile since they saw Hyperion and asks Kayl when the last time he spotted the dragon was. Much to Kayl's chagrin, he was not paying attention to the terrain ahead of them and lost sight of Hyperion. In a panic, everyone rushes forward.

Bengt and Odila arrive first to the scene of Hyperion in combat with multiple Dragonborn Barbarians, the burning remains of tents and sleds causing the smoke. With Hyperion surrounded and being attacked, Odila moves forward to try and stall and calm the situation and Bengt moves up to translate with Azzat's Draconic Longsword.

A White Dragonborn, Albus Whitemane calls Bengt out on the situation, calling the dwarf the "cursed one" that Azzat brought to the Spine of the World. They exchange some heated words, but with Hyperion still being attacked, Odila and Bengt move to attempt to subdue the other barbarians.

Kayl and Soma-Rai arrive and throw some big charm and sleep spells to incapacitate the group. After tying them up and healing Hyperion, the young dragon immediately wants to kill the "slave" Dragonborn who dared attack him.

Bengt talks to the Dragonborn and attempts to vouch for Hyperion, claiming that all three of their species should not tread the same mistakes of their ancestors, but many of the Dragonborn are not hearing it—still quite upset that Bengt hatched a dragon. One claims that if the dwarf was a true hero, he would have offed himself and let Azzat bring the Aeon Scale to safety with the Elders to avoid risking it causing chaos in the world, as evidenced by the fact that Bengt went on to hatch one of their tyrants. They also berate him, as his entire people was wiped out specifically to prevent this outcome. After some back and forth, Bengt releases the Dragonborn but they leave with a warning that if any of the party comes back to the Spine of the World, it will be war.

A silver and the white Dragonborn hesitate and tell Bengt that they wish there could be peace, that they wish there was a way for coexistence but that it is not so easy to change one's nature, and that thousands of generations of enslavement do not disappear easily.

Bengt and Hyperion have a small chat, where Bengt takes the role of concerned parent and Hyperion relents in admitting that he got in over his head a bit. The realization that Bengt's people were scoured in genocide is also news to the new hatchling, and he mentions interest in learning Bengt's story—including whatever Gorthok may have to teach about the Sunwalker order.