Session 51 - Dragons and Dungeons
General Summary
20 Lamashan (Oct), 4720
The
Saviors of Sandpoint stood before a group of redcaps and a white
Drakkyl with a blind right eye and a metallic right hand. The drakkyl recognized them, then re-introduced himself. Once, he had been
Dagourn Thundercrag and the heroes had rescued him from a prison cell beneath
Thistletop. Now he was... different.
The stone giants had captured Dagourn, and
Mokmurian had used a ritual to convert him and several other prisoners into white-scaled drakkyl. However, unlike the other prisoners, Dagourn appeared to retain his mind and personality, whereas the others became beasts. They were all branded with the sihedron mark. Mokmurian sacrificed the other enslaved people, but Dagourn was kept alive for "further examination" later. Mokmurian cautioned that if Dagourn stepped out of line or tried to escape, the sihedron mark would allow them to find him and kill him. Mokmurian allowed him to be an intermediary between the stone giants and the redcaps, who lived in the tunnels beyond Jorgenfist. The two groups did not get along, and Mokmurian didn't want to waste time hunting down and killing the redcap "rodents."
Dagourn also explained who Mokmurian was, telling the heroes about his bitter life as a giant "runt" who became a powerful wizard. Meanwhile, the redcaps took a great deal of enjoyment in verbally harassing Arcaan. They recognized him from a failed mission he had undertaken, calling him a lapdog and stupid. The ordinarily upbeat half-orc took great offence to being called stupid and unleashed a draconic banshee blast from his gauntlet, injuring the redcaps and Dagourn.
That's when things went off the rails.
The redcaps attacked, and the heroes retaliated. Dagourn fled.
Two stone giants came to see the commotion and joined the battle.
Kumiko and Arcaan chased after Dagourn. Cloud entered a dining hall inhabited by three stone giants, who then gave chase to him.
Arcaan returned to the group with giants in tow while Kumiko looked for either an escape or Dagourn.
Kilgor followed her while the party fought the giants.
Quilith and Kilgor found Kumiko, who spotted Dagourn.
Quilith, Kilgor and Kumiko chased Dagourn while Mite raced into the darkness. Jayvielle and Arcaan followed after the mad goblin.
Kilgor, Quilith and Kumiko discovered a cavern with two young red dragons, who attacked them.
Jayvielle, Mite, and Arcaan ran into Dagourn and another young red dragon.
The party reunited as they fought the dragons. Dagourn, again, fled.
They considered their options as the dust settled and the heroes patched themselves up. Was Dagourn leading them to Mokmurian? Or was he taking them to Mokmurian? Magic was running low, as was healing. Should they risk leaving now to recuperate and come back? They currently had the element of surprise. If they left Jorgenfist, the fortress would be alert when they returned. What would that look like?
The party decided to go a little further, hoping to catch up to Dagourn and get some more answers. "A little further" was an eight-hundred-foot spiral pathway leading deeper beneath the fortress. The walls changed from carved stone to ancient stone construction of Thassalonian origin. The rounded corners gave everything an oddly alien feel. It had to be the library area where Mokmurian would be waiting for them.
Pushing to check "just one more room," Mite crept in ahead of the party. The room seemed so bizarre that Mite could not judge the actual size of it. He felt a wave of nausea take him just before he shrank to a fraction of his average size. As if things couldn't get any worse, a massive and misshapen hill giant barreled out of the debris on the far side of the room, and he seemed to have his Mite-squishing boots on.