On dragons, monks, and shite

19th of Flamerule:
Groc answered the call – and I went down to watch, feeling pangs of guilt and shame at my cowardice. As combat was joined it was immediately evident that even Groc was grossly overmatched. This blue half-dragon warrior was bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled, and when he grew bored of Groc’s persistence he simply exhaled his devastating lightning breath over the brave half-orc until his body convulsed on the ground. Despite his defeat, I marveled at this half-orc’s courage. He moved with skill and grace during the fight, and showed unrelenting resilience to the mighty half-dragon’s powerful blows. I wonder if he could have prevailed were it not for his opponent’s breath weapon? Luckily the damage was not so severe as to be beyond healing, and clerics were able to bring him back without too much ado. This was especially fortuitous for me as I felt even greater pangs of guilt watching Groc endure the wracking lightning bolts coursing through his body… should it have been me?
As promised, the half dragon Langderosa released his captives, and took his entourage to link up with the rest of his forces that were already marching North. Intriguing… a wicked half-dragon leader with a sense of honor. We four, Groc more than any, desperately needed true rest, and with the invading raiders well on their way out, we finally got it.
 
Around noon we awoke, feeling much refreshed, if a bit sore, and were summoned to meet with Governor Nighthill again, who has asked that we track the raiders. He wants to know their motives, where they are going, where they came from, and to look for any prisoners they may have taken captive – freeing them if possible. The Governor graciously issued an edict proclaiming that all merchants should sell their wares to us at a tremendous discount. Whilst we did not have all that much gold to spend in the first place, it certainly allowed us to stock up on needed provisions and even acquire a few uncommon items that would have otherwise been outside of our means. Sadly, none of those items were ones I could make real use of, save the nice shiny new collection of tools and kits I availed myself of, along with a bit of steel chain to begin work on my drake talon necklace. I was hopefully to find some finely crafted armor, but alas, all of it had been stolen by the raiders. Perhaps it is just as well, I likely could not have been able to afford truly well crafted armor in the first place – even if it was deeply discounted. Of course, as alluded to in the flash of a dream I had during my brush with death, I have no need to purchase a magical weapon – I can now simply summon it—such a boon! Shortly after awaking, and before my fellows stirred, I repeated the words of summoning from my dream, and behold! A magical greatsword appeared in my hand! Truly it is a thing of beauty, and of terror. The blade I held in my hands did give off the softest, faintest of purple glows that was reminiscent of my eldritch power, but it was not of the same intensity I saw in my dream. Perhaps I must learn to bring forth that power in another way, or perhaps it grows in strength as I learn more about it? In the meantime I have dismissed the mighty blade until I need it at the ready, no sense in walking about with extra weight whilst in town.
Given the Governor’s request of us to track the raiders, Rhumor smartly pointed out that we could use the aid of a tracker. Quite right – who among us knows anything about tracking? Certainly not I, apparently not Rhumor, and I doubt either the Half Orc or the Archaeologist are familiar with the ways of the wilds and how to track foes. Fortunately Nighthill agreed to provide some to help us, granted only for purposes of tracking, not fighting or infiltrating, but that should be sufficient. Upon completion of our shopping spree, Escobert indicated that the governor had requested one last visit with us before we depart. Back up the stairs. Again. I truly do despise stairs. It’s a wonder my legs do not look like a mountain dwarf’s by now.
 
Nighthill introduced us to our tracking guide. She was not at all what I expected. Firstly, she was clearly no ranger, nor did she carry the bearing of a scout. As my mind raced through all of the possibilities of how an individual who neither scouted nor had an apparent care for the wilds was supposed to help us track our quarry, my ears perked at the mention of her origins. She is a local. She knows the region well, and the surrounding regions because she travels these roads a great deal. Brilliant. I just prayed she could keep quiet enough as neared our quarry so as not to alert them of our presence. The governor also alluded that she had other skills we would find useful.
Nuri. Our new guide’s name is Nuri. She appears to be Elven heritage… but likely part elf. Her round facial features seem far too human to be of a full Elven line, and that hair, while lovely, is decidedly human. She actually reminds me a bit of some of the sailors I knew back in Luskan. So many women there with reddish coloration in their hair. I am a bit skeptical as to how effective she will be in tracking the raiders, but then I reminded myself of how I had similar thoughts about Conrad… Perhaps, and hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised.
 
As we struck out northward following the initially easy to see tracks of the raiders, Nuri pointed out that there is a shortcut that follows the outer edge of the forest, the Wood of Sharp Teeth. A bit of panic crept in as I considered leaving the more obvious trail left behind by the raiders, but we desperately needed to make up for lost time, and Nuri does seem quite confident. During this initial time Nuri shared a bit about herself – she is a sorceress. That could be quite useful in many regards, if not tracking. At least Rhumor should feel more at ease with all of the extra hiding places the tree line will provide.
Not too long after we set off, we encountered a severely injured man named Nessin. It seems he was part of a group of monks from Berdusk whose master has been investigating this Cult of the Dragon for some time now. His master, one called Leosin, disappeared during the attack on Greenest, and Nessin believes he was taken captive by the raiders. Nessin was also able to confirm we were heading in the right direction, and that there was a small group of stragglers that had made camp about half hour’s walk from our position. We did our best to patch up his wounds, and Nuri gave him directions to follow the shortcut and avoid the more traveled road.
Rhumor ran ahead to scout things out, and then reported back. Nestled in an area with several boulders and a few trees were a dozen raiders. Eight kobolds and four cultists, and best of all, they were completely oblivious. The cultists foolishly left their weapons at the edge of camp. After discussing the potential options a bit, we settled on a three pronged approach. Groc and I would walk right in. I would be wearing a dragon mask and impersonate an officer. Groc would pretend to be my prisoner. Rhumor would swing west and try to steal the weapons right from under their noses. Nuri and Conrad would swing east and wait hidden in a copse of trees until the time was right.
It started off flawlessly. The kobold who challenged my entry was kneeling soon after we entered their camp. Then it all fell apart. One of the cultists recognized us, and everything changed in an instant. I wasted no time in immediately running up to the nearest cultist and decapitated him. Rhumor rushed to the weapon stash and made off with what he could. Groc obliterated the foolish kobold who had been groveling at my feet just seconds before.
 
Then Nuri happened. Just after the body of the now headless cultist fell over I heard Nuri call out the word of a spell, and half the kobolds just fell right over. She’d rendered a third of their force unconscious with the utterance of a single word. Trailing just behind her Conrad came rushing in calling his mico-elemental into the fray. The micro-sized Groc made of fire appeared right smack in the middle of all of the kobolds, and half of them were simply incinerated by its arrival. Then it ran over to Groc and teleported the two of them away, incinerating nearly all of the remaining kobolds.
 
The cultists ran for their weapon stash. Two of them were able to find their weapons, the third looked around dumbfounded as his weapon had apparently disappeared. I had been running toward them, but was unable to intercept in time. Nuri, most conveniently, put the two armed warriors to sleep, and I swung around to the lone remaining cultist and slashed upward. He had apparently gained enough presence of mind to at least try to move out of the way, but I still caught him under the arm – not enough to take him out, but he was hurting. But only for a moment. As he spun to face me fully Rhumor put an arrow in his chest, and he collapsed.
 
We tied up the two sleepers just before the spell began to fade. This allowed us to interrogate them properly, learning of a formal rear guard (of which they were not a part), the rear guard’s standard operating procedures, as well as the location of the camp complete with a basic description. Information extracted, we removed the possibility of them reporting back to anyone, and took the two cleanest cultist robes we could find. Nuri donned one of these, and the other was reserved for Leosin should we manage to free him.
 
The rear guard sounded like it would be too well organized and formidable to try and fight directly. Rhumor scouted ahead and confirmed we should avoid them altogether, which we managed with aplomb. Upon arriving at the entrance to the raider camp, it became apparent that we could waltz right in. The camp was in chaos. We took advantage and began making our way past the hundreds of kobolds, mercenaries, cultists… such an array of foes. It’s a good thing we are being paid for this. While I abhor the evil I can sense in this camp… it feels oppressive in a way that not even Luskan under the thumb of the Drow felt. I want all of these folk free to make their own choices-devoid of any brainwashing, but this task feels like it may be beyond my current capabilities. After hearing about what the rear guard looked like, the risk feels very real here. Hopefully soon I will have more time and opportunity to learn more about my newfound powers, and perhaps answers, or even the right questions, regarding these runes that are always tugging at the edge of my thoughts.
 
There was a rather lively internal debate about how to get the information we were after, and in what order we should achieve it. Eventually we decided to try and locate Leosin first, and then attempt to gather information. About the time we located Leosin, with just enough time for Nuri to speak with him telepathically only to learn he did not want our aid, Rhumor noted the blue half-dragon approaching our position. The wood elf then ushered us circuitously out the Cyanwrath’s line of sight. At this point Rhumor grew very nervous. I really felt we had not achieved any of our goals, save perhaps that we could tell the governor that this band of raiders was many times the size any one of us might have estimated – I insisted we stay to find out more. We agreed a distraction could at least help the monk in whatever he might be planning, and should aid in our exit as well, but first we needed to try and learn a little more from the raiders. We chatted up some of the revelers and did manage to learn the monk was to be interrogated by Mondath herself. This was disconcerting. We also heard several high levels officers toasting to “the dragon queen,” whatever that meant. Before I could relay this information to everyone, Conrad managed to get himself assigned to shit shoveling detail. He apparently drew the attention of Lt. Ravenot who was in charge of said detail. And this is where everything really went, well, to shit. Groc, Nuri, and I stayed near the revelers to attempt to gather more information – hopeful that Conrad would rejoin us soon. He didn’t. After a couple of hours passed, combined with some commotion in the general direction Conrad had gone, we decided to see what had happened. We discovered Conrad had been added to the prisoner group. Rhumor vanished having simply said he would provide distraction.
 
Conrad was able to tell us where they had stashed his equipment, and Nuri knocked out the sole inhabitant of that tent with her sleeping spell. I then tied up the fellow and gagged him. Not too long after this a small concussive sound came from the far side of the encampment, and we could see fire and smoke. Regrettably only one guard left because of the distraction – still many more surrounded the prisoners. Nuri managed to convince several of them to go aid in the fire. She is quite full of surprises! We were now down just a few… 5 or 6 I think… guards. Conrad had asked for his potion of hill giant strength, and Nuri sent it to him with magic. Brilliant! But, as the moments ticked on, Conrad was still sitting there shackled. He needed the key. Great, where are we going to find the keys? Nuri checked a couple of guards, and asked me to check the cultist in the tent. He had them! What a stroke of luck! About the time Conrad got his shackles unlocked, the fire began to spread, and another guard ran off to aid.
Oh for the luck to hold! Alas, it did not. Conrad was spotted as he tried to sneak away from the prisoner holding area. We all sprang to action. I teleported in between two of the guards and let them get a thrashing from Hadar’s tentacles. I must have been tired, but I could swear I was able to partially see through my arms as I called forth the tentacles. It was a most strange sensation. It had been a very long day though… In any event, my spell was not quite enough to knock them out. Nuri then released an unbelievably large barrage of fire bolts and took out the two guards I’d started in on, as well as severely damaging a third. Groc shot another guard and then Conrad released his motes of fire to finish them off.
 
Apparently Conrad had, after freeing himself, handed the keys over to another prisoner. About this time multiple prisoners began to get up to run away. And then it dawned on me – we now had to get ourselves out along with twice our number in prisoners. Adrenaline still coursing through me I frantically looked around for a solution, and there it was. The same thing that got us in this mess was going to help get us out: Shit. Or, more precisely, the buckets the shit was in. We all grabbed buckets to ostensibly carry water for helping put out the fire.
 
By some small miracle, and with some strategic maneuvering through the camp, we managed to get out without so much as a word from any of the raiders. We had not even made it to the rendezvous point when Rhumor caught up to us. I’d guess he’d been shadowing us before we even made it out the camp, but who is to know with that one.
I was a bit surprised that no one made protest about the decision to stay at the rendezvous till morning rather than make straight for Greenest, but am glad for it. The prisoners we had freed were in rough shape, and I truly desired to converse with Leosin.
 
After a refreshing, but still watchful, meditation, I grew restless. My mind swirled with questions, and I made a mental note to spend some time meditating on the nature of my new sword to better understand its properties, and to try teleporting again during our journey back to Greenest. I simply could not shake the image of my semi-translucent arms. Since we had a few hours yet before sunrise, I pulled the bit of steel chain out of pouch along with my jeweler’s tools and the drakes’ teeth. Under the light of a half moon this warm summer night I began the delicate process of boring holes into the teeth, and then smoothing out the sharp edges of the hole’s entry and exit points to prevent the chain from catching once threaded. The trickiest part of this turned out to be achieving a semblance of symmetry in how the large teeth would fall once the necklace was assembled. I believe I managed a respectable effort for my first attempt at jewelry. I shall have to be mindful of when and where I wear this, but it does bring me a secret smile.