Session 39: Ilthane the Black
General Summary
The party left the Free City with all haste, picking up the carriage and horses that were miraculously unmolested at the Jabbar Manor. As the free city walls shrank behind them, the party drove grimly on into the Cairn Hills.
They found Diamond Lake in shambles. Several buildings had been levelled, and many more were half-melted or badly damaged from the dragon's acid. A huge blackened spray scarred the town square.
As soon as they arrived, some guards from the garrison beseeched them to go after the dragon, who had arrived out of a clear blue sky, wreaking devastation and demanding the townsfolk give up the four of them (she hadn't mentioned Zeke), as well as the wizard Allustan.
She rounded up townsfolk, ripping houses off roofs to scoop out the terrified villagers with her claws, and dozens died before someone told her what she wanted to know: Allustan had been spending much of his time in a newly-uncovered cairn to the northwest.
Learning this, the dragon took off, crushing several already-damaged structures with the mighty beating of her wings, flying toward the Whispering Cairn.
The party rushed to the workers' district to check on their families. Vin found her uncle and cousin safe in the family home, and learned that her parents and brothers were helping the survivors, managing the flow of wounded and cleaning up the rubble.
They walked through the ruin of Snackamuffins' bakery and past the bisected Bogmar residence, and found two out of five of Lins' siblings assisting with the wounded. Zeke pitched in as well, lending his healing hands to injured clerics and organizers while the rest of the party asked after Mr. and Mrs. Bogmar, as well as their three other children, who were apparently recovering from their wounds in one of the hastily-repurposed buildings.
Thus reassured, the party turned their attention on the dragon. Dusk was passing to night when they arrived at the cairn, but Sigvurd made out Ilthane's black shadow against the sky. The dragon noticed them when the wizard tried, and failed, to Earthbind her.
"Dragotha take you all - this wizard is mine!" she roared, opening her maw to deliver a breath attack on the clustered party.
Her breath reeked of acidic fumes that burned their flesh and sapped their strength. Even the mighty swings of Sigvurd's greataxe seemed a mild bother, and it took the party's combined efforts of long-range blasts, holy protection, and critical strikes to persuade the dragon to retreat. She did so, cursing their names and promising revenge.
Shaken but triumphant, the party began exploring the tomb. It didn't take a ranger to see where Allustan's efforts had been concentrated. A passage that was impassibly collapsed on their first visit had been neatly excavated, and a black portal open at its far end.
After resting, the party investigated the portal, defeated its ghoulish guardian, and stepped through to rescue their old friend.