17. 2 dragons and a bronze egg

Welp, now we are stuck in cages while we have a bulette and the draconian guards coming for us. Although the bulette has already eaten at least one guard, so the plan seems to be working. The stupid silver sivak has alerted the whole camp to us. Then, to make things more interesting, Arinona tells Sterling that there is a dragon coming. That is definitely not a fight we can win, bulette on our side or not. We need to rescue these prisoners and leave.
 
I tell everyone to climb on the cages, and Mal to create a hole in the wall. We do just that, and finally, Mal, the elves, the kind, and I use a hole he made in the stone to exit the camp. We're still surrounded by that terrible muddy muck around the fort, but at least we can start to leave. Arinona does not join us, but she tells us to go ahead and escape, while she flies off the other way. We see Waah come back, and she's helping us fight so we can run away. I worry that we need to help Sterling out, since he is holding back all the camp guards. Come on bulette, be useful!
 
The dragon comes closer, and lands. It was originally on the tower, but then it comes to the outside of the wall where we are at, and uses its horrific breath poison on us. Sterling, Mal, and I fall. Apparently Waah helped Mal, who was then able to help the rest of us. We are able to escape, with the dragon back on the tower. We need to hurry up, because it can catch up with us, and then we'll be in real trouble. My turn to help Sterling with a potion, and we run away, as fast as we can. I had planned to go back to camp, eastward, but we are west, and we just move out as fast as we can.
 
We barely escape, and Sterling has to carry me. After a bit of running, we spot some scouts. One of them is Clistrin, who is scouting for our troops under Darrett. They offer to accompany us back to the army camp, nad then we can rest there. In the camp is Dalamar and Arinona, and we are so relieved to see them. She has a chest in front of her, though, so we mostly pay attention to that. It is not a large, or heavy chest, and she says that when carried it, she felt something move inside it. I offer to open it up, but am unable to. Sterling also offers to break it, but we worry he'll break what's inside.
 
Arinona is able to mess with the lock, and opens the latch. Inside is a metallic dragon egg, still slightly warm. WHAT?
 
I panic. We need to take care of this! I ask Clistrin about how the dragonelles take care of their eggs. He says that the wasteland dragonelles take turns watching the egg. He reminds us that the one that attacked us was a black dragon. He says that the old stories say the metallic dragons are good. But the sivaks we have fought so far have all been metallic, and they are definitely not good. I think that maybe those have been corrupted. I confirm if the dragonelles just stay with the eggs, or if they keep them warm. He says that they wrap themselves around their eggs, and keep them warm. He also says that taking it to Heart's Hollow is the safest place for the egg. We discuss as a group. On one hand, Heart's Hollow has never been attacked, but if it were, it would not have many defenses. Kalamann, on the other hand, would have defenses, but it is under new leadership, and they did not do well the last time there was a danger.
 
I ask Dalamar what he knows about the metallic dragons. He says the they have not been seen since the cataclysm. He also agrees that we, as scouts and special units are probably not the best people to keep the dragon egg safe. We wonder out loud how the dragon eggs are corrupted, and where we can keep the egg. Clistrin says that we should ask Ness, and that he knows a good way back to Heart's Hollow. We also choose not to tell Darrett, because he would have to report that up his chain of command, and we don't see a way in which Lord Bakaris won't know about this otherwise. I remember that those two soldiers we captured in the keep told us that the metallic dragons abandoned their eggs, since they are not coming back to protect them from the corruption. Why are the metallic dragons not coming to save the eggs? Also, how do they find the eggs? Clistrin says the dragon he saw was the same kind of metallic as the egg.
 
We rest for the night. In the morning, I look for Darrett. We will need more healing potions, since two of them saved our party from becoming dragon food the previous day. He gives me two of those which I give to the Sterling brothers. We set off to Heart's Hollow once we are all awake and packed. We make it after a tiring long day of marching. We go back to the Salt Lick and see Ness, at her normal table. Clistrin goes and talk to her first, and then he leaves. She then stands up and asks for 1 hour of privacy from all the other patrons. Some grumble, but everyone eventually leaves.
 
Once we are all alone, Arinona sets the chest in front of Ness, and tells her to go ahead and open it. Once she sees it, she looks upset, and goes to grab some drink for all of us. We tell her that we need this to stay safe. She leans back, thoughtfully. I had hoped she would be more open to this, but I guess she knows something like this will definitely attract attention from the draconic army. Arinona tells her how we found it, in the dragon army camp, inside the officer tent. We tell her about the black dragon that we saw, and almost killed us. She listens to all the details, and then she tells us that she hopes that we leave the egg here in her care. I am surprised. She says that 100 years ago she came here looking for clutches of metallic dragon eggs, and that she's been looking for a long time. This is the first one she's seen so far. We tell her she doesn't look that old, so I ask her what she is. She says she is a bronze dragon, and that her lair is located below, in the crater. She blinks to show us her bronze dragon eyes. She is here to offer these people a safe haven.
 
I ask her why the eggs were left here in the first place. She says she cannot tell us. She says that something happened very long ago, after the last dragon war. She knows that the metallic dragon eggs are not where they should be, which means that she knew where they were supposed to be. She says she does not know, but thinks that where the wastelands are now were once important to dragonkind. Mal asks if she is aware of what the chromatic dragons are doing to the eggs. She is unaware. Arinona asks if she has seen the dragon army sivaks. She says that they are just overgrown kobolds. I tell her what the draconic army soldiers told us. We don't know if the dragon eggs ewer found around here, but we do know that they will be looking for the dragon egg. I ask what she would do with it, and she says that she will protect it. She said she can raise the youngling. It may not hatch for a long time, perhaps even by the time its parents return. Dragon egg incubation time depends on the dragon species. It can take as little as a few years if it has all the attention it needs. It won't hatch without a parent. We ask if having an adult dragon is good enough, and she says that she isn't sure. Dragons are usually very possessive of its eggs, and don't usually leave them out of their sight. But not in this case.
 
Ultimately, something made the metallic dragons leave. They are not here for a reason, and she cannot tell us the reason. And she can't tell us if she has contact with any other dragons. But she does think that we deserve a reward for the find. She puts her hand on the chest, and excuses herself for a minute. Then she walks out the back door, and is gone for about 5 minutes before I go out the back, and look down the crater. I see a huge dark shape fly up from the depths of the crater, in a misty kind of way, like a dragon passing through a waterfall. Then suddenly, Ness is walking along the rope boardwalk.
 
I can't help it. I ask her if its rude to ask a dragon what their hoard is, and she says that it is a personal question. And that the reward she has for is cannot be any more personal. She shows me a chest, and we walk back inside. With the rest of the group around, she opens the chest, and shows us a set of bronze dragon scale mail armor!
 
I have so many more questions for Ness.
Was she here for the cataclysm? She was young, but yes. But not on this land.
 
Why is she here but the rest of the dragons haven't been seen since? There is a reason, and it happened not that long ago. 3.5 centuries ago was the cataclysm, and dragons and gods kept away. She says there was strife between chromatic and metallic dragons. Chromatic follow Tahkisis, and Metallics follow Bahamet. In the religion of the past, there was an empire called Istar, ruled by a king priest, head of a religious order, that was good, and they wished that all their people lived good lives. Over time, they developed magic to predict where evil may happen, and detected evil thoughts. King priest took things to an even more extreme, and much to the anger of the gods, he would become a god. That offended the gods, and that is why they cast down a mountain of molten rock to crash Ishtar. The gods took their faithful and left. Humanoids stayed. Good dragons have been staying away because of the problem with the eggs. Because the eggs were stolen by the chromatic dragons, and if they return, then the chromatic dragons threatened to kill them all.
 
She implied she knows there the metallic dragon eggs are supposed to be. How does she know? And why was she looking for them? Did she have reason to believe they were in danger? She was convinced that there were some eggs still out there. Dragons go where they wish, and they were in this area a very long time ago. This is the place where the ancient of their kind would come to die. So she thought that this place, with the spirit of the ancients and draconic magic, this would be the place to find the eggs.
 
Does she have any siblings?
 
Does she know of any evil metallic dragons, since the stories say they were good, but the ones we have seen so far with the dragon army have all been silver, and that worries us. She is not aware of any, as far as she knows. Mal will describe the sivak, and ask why they are metallic, and ask if they are associated with metallic dragons. She says that cannot be the case. She says that if they were doing such horrible things to their children, which would ruin their leverage. If there were proof of what we are saying, then it could bring back the metallics.
 
I bring up that this egg was being carried between places, which means it had a purpose, it was not just being stored. And she agrees that we need some proof, like some documentation or ritual magic, or a witness. Or a cache of metallic eggs that was being abused.
 
Does she know where else we can look? Or what other types of metallic dragon eggs we are looking for? She originally thought, and if she can point to a map. Where did the chromatic dragon approach from? It is important to know, because the only time we have found a dragon egg was when we found a dragon.
 
Does she know how one could corrupt dragon eggs/dragonlings? Did not ask, because she did not know.
 
I ask if there is a weapon to help us, and Sterling will bring the lance out, and show it to Ness. She is pretty happy about it. She says she is not familiar with this particular one, but that it was forged during the time of the dragon war, 700 years before the City of Lost Names.
 
Metallics were upset about the flying city, and the knight failed to find a peaceful solution.