The Cult of the Dragon

Criminal Activity

The Bucket Brigade, while searching for coastal caves, encounters a pair of goblins along the side of the road. While trying to avoid being spotted, the party comes face to face with 2 men in dark colored robes. A melee ensues and the party manages to kill both robed men and the 2 goblins nearby. A pair of enchanted trees also attack the party unexpectedly, but eventually those are also killed. Later, the party identifies the robed men to be members of an evil cult known as the Cult of the Dragon.

The party left off after ending the threat with the pair of owlbears. PewPew is stabilized a second time and recovers from his injuries after the party decides to take a long rest while the uninjured party members kept a rotating lookout to avoid being surprised in the middle of the night. The night is uneventful and the fully rested party breaks camp early the next morning and sets off down the same road heading east again.   The party travels for a couple hours down the path before the ranger, Frozen, silently signals for the party to stop. The sounds of a small river flowing up ahead is easily picked up, but mixed in every so often are the faint sounds of two excited voices. As the party creeps towards the side of the road towards the sounds of voices, they realized that they are standing above a small cliff side that overlooks a small river. On the opposite side of the riverbank the party spots a pair of goblins speaking excitedly with one another while standing next to a small campfire.   After some deliberation, the party decides to attempt to sneak past the goblins while the druid, Comet, was distracting the 2 goblins with an minor illusion spell, tricking the goblins into believing they heard several small rocks fall near the edge of the cliff side. The party creeps silently past the goblins, but at the bottom of the path leading past the goblins, several robed men emerge from the trees from the direction the party was headed coming within 30 feet of the party.   Before anyone else can react, Oharn Stormbeard leaps over the small wall on his right hand side and lands between the confused goblins and the robed men who emerged from the forest. In one swift motion he throws his hand axe at the nearest goblin, which misses and lands on the ground several feet behind it. Comet, the group's druid, manages to cast a bless spell on the 3 closest people to him at the time. Frozen, Nimbus, and SirSleepsalot, glow momentarily with a faint aura as the bless spell takes effect and charge into the fray.   The party is able to quickly dispose of the pair of goblins, but the robed men prove to be more troublesome causing serious injuries to Comet with their necrotic magic. Sir Sleepsalot manages to down one of the robed men with a well placed arrow, leaving him temporarily unconscious. Frozen takes that opportunity to hogtie the man and drag him towards the rest of the party still dealing with the remaining robed men. PewPew notices a cave on the opposite river bank and shouts to the others while moving towards and gesturing in the direction of the cave. During the fight, several party members positioned themselves near the goblin encampment, and soon realize that a pair of 30 foot tall trees without leaves near the back were no ordinary trees.   Before anyone could react, the animated trees begin slamming and raining blows from above with their heavy branches. The dwarven cleric, Oharn, suffers serious injuries, but manages to stay conscious due to healing magic from Comet. The monk, FeatherFace , takes a direct hit from one of the trees and is left unconscious and in critical condition. Frozen rushes to the aid of the monk and drags him out of reach of the wooden limbs of the animated tree and begins to administer first aid to the dying monk. Pewpew sprints to the goblin campfire and drops a few crossbow bolt tips in the flames and grabs one bolt that seems to have caught fire and launches it directly at the closest animated tree immediately setting it on fire.   Eventually the party manages to bring down both trees and the monk recovers consciousness after healing magic brings him back from the brink of death. As everyone is finally beginning to catch their breath and the adrenaline starts to wear off, Sir Sleepsalot notices a particularly weird looking plant between where the two animated trees originally stood. Upon closer inspection, he notices the texture is very unnatural looking. The rogue eventually realizes it's a cover designed to be a type of crude camouflage cover and decides to try and move it aside. Underneath, a locked wooden chest is revealed.   End of Session #2   Start of Session #3 The rogue Sir Sleepsalot carefully examines the wooden chest to determine if it's been booby trapped eventually coming to the conclusion that the chest is safe to tamper with. He removes his thieves' tools, begins picking, and is rewarded with a barely audible click as the metallic lock swings open. Inside, they discover the small chest is filled nearly to the brim with various coins ranging from copper to gold. They also discover a leather belt with a small ruby set within the buckle, 2 ceramic goblets, and a pair of finely crafted leather bracers. They immediately decide to divvy the loot by splitting the coin evenly among the party.   Frozen starts to examine the bodies of the fallen cultists and collects the daggers from their bodies. Finding nothing else of interest other than their curious garments, she recalls hearing rumors about a new cult and a recent upswing in cultist activity in general, but she is unable to identify which faction these guys belong to. PewPew upon realizing the puzzled look on Frozen's face walks over and breaks it down crudely for her. He's seen these cultists and other cultist factions warring it out in this coastal area. His patrols had discovered many of their dead bodies with a growing frequency of late and he's all too familiar with this particularly new cult. The head gear they wear is a very distinctive design which closely resembles a dragon skull. This particular cult worships dragons and their numbers continue to grow rapidly.