Session 122: Wanted Women

General Summary

29th Brussendar 836PD   The party head to the city walls, but before they can leave Ank’Harel for the route to the caravansari, Raven spots the city guardsmen, the Hand of Ord, inspecting every tiefling traveller that matches Zeni’s description!   Unsure of what interest the guards have in Zeni, the tiefling alters self to appear as a human, whilst Raphael adopts his elderly disguise of Jeremy Hightower. He innocently questions a guard as they pass through the exit, about what trouble that tiefling has caused, and Zeni detects the guard’s thoughts seeing a female Captain of Guards who is missing, and that Zeni might be involved.   Zeni recognises the face of the Captain, and possible name of ‘Rawson’. The group are able to pass through the city check point and start their journey across the desert to the Tash Rabat.   After several hours in the blazing morning sun, a sudden scream is heard up ahead over a dune, the party rush to investigate, finding a caravan being attacked by Bandits and Desert Giants.   Rushing to their aid, Raven wild shapes into a Giant Raven to fly up and distract the Giants, but one launches a large boulder that knocks Raven right out of his wild shape. Causing his Drow form to plummet 200 ft into the hard sands below, knocking him unconscious.   Orlando and Enessa draw the rock throwing fire of the other Giant, giving an opening for Zeni to send a chain of lightning through 3 of the bandits, but the desert life makes for hardy foes as they continue their assault on the carts and take hostages.   Arthur soon puts a stop to the bandit’s human shielding though and precisely places a wall of force in between the bandits and the hostages.   Raphael hexes the second Giant and the cold strikes of Frostweaver crack through its dry desert skin. Orlando charges the lightening rune on his gun and unleashes a deadly shot right in the first Giant’s chest, and he pursues after the bandits, leaving Enessa to bring the Giant down in a volleying surge of arrows.   Zeni feels a shift in the sands beneath her and the huge writhing gullet of a Sathaq Worm snaps around her leg. The worm nearly swallows her whole, but Arthur’s chronal shift just gives his fellow wizard the temporal nudge to duck out of the way of the worm’s maw. The worm burrows away when its Bandit handler is shot down by Orlando.   Raphael smites down dead the last remaining Giant with the cold eldritch force of Winter. As the cold corpse thuds down on the dune, the sand beneath them start to rumble, before erupting in a gritty avalanche with the mighty roar of an Ancient Blue Dragon revealing itself!   The Dragon singles out a half elven woman amongst the caravan travellers, snatching her in his great claw and begins to fly away. Zeni tries to rescue the woman, she bravely dimension doors up into the air but misses the dragon’s claws, landing hard into the sand. But if at first you don’t succeed, dimension door again, and she does using her tempestuous magic to blow her on course with the claw holding the woman.   Zeni holds on for dear life as the rest of the party try to slow down and distract the Dragon, Orlando and Enessa volley into the blue drake, whilst Raphael casts fly on himself to chase after them.   The Dragon scratches his claw, knocking Zeni unconscious, her limp body tumbles again through the air, Raphael attempts to catch her but the frightful presence of the Dragon sways him off course and he misses her. For the second time within a minute, another member of the Unbroken crashes’ unconscious into the sands of Marquet.   Arthur freezes the wheel of the cart stopping the remaining bandits from using it to escape, whilst Orlando rounds up any straggling survivors. Enessa rushes to stabilise and heal Raven, Arthur continues to show some comradery with his predecessor wizard, curing Zeni’s wounds from the fall and bringing her back to consciousness.   The group begin to question the caravan travellers and the few bandits that remain, revealing the Ancient Blue Dragon is known as Zolar the Suneater. Arthur recalls that Blue Dragons are vain creatures, but are loyal to kin as well as collecting valuable and talented people in their service. The Bandits serve the Dragon, and were helping to capture the woman he wanted for his collection, Miss Charmian Starbury, the famous courtesan and entertainer known as the ‘Sapphire of the Sands’.   Arthur remembers something more troubling though, he knows of the rumours that Ank’Harel’s ruler, J'mon Sa Ord, is secretly an Ancient Brass Dragon. If that is true, then why does this Blue Dragon feel confident to be encroaching on the territory of its natural adversary and competitor….?