Meeting Ground

Gathering / Conference

The army of Bonner gathers to fight against the Dark Elves in the morning.

The party rides into Camp Midway, now overflowing with people from all over Bonner who wish to fight against the Dark Elves. They pass the merchants section, where Danger and Daryl recognize the Deep Gnome merchant who cheated them out of their gemstones back in Citadel. They try to sneak up on him, but he recognizes them and runs.   The party speaks with High Commander Renier. He tells them in no uncertain terms that they are likely to lose this battle at Bard’s Haven the next day. The party offers a solution; if the wizards use Daylight, like the driftglobe, it could weaken the Dark Elf army and give them a chance. Renier sends them to relay this to the wizards, but pulls Indigo aside. He asks for his help at a location to the north of camp.   Indigo travels north, bringing Danger with him. They find a guarded structure, a prison, and the guards take Indigo to the back to see a druid who has lost control. Samson, from Indigo’s circle.   Mirian and Daryl go to the wizards and give them the daylight tip. A good number of them know the spell, but they will have to be spread out to cover as much area as possible.   Danger hands Indigo his moonstone John Taffer and Indigo enters Samson’s cage. He talks Samson into a calm state and convinces him to take the moonstone. Samson’s Eclipse Corruption is cured. They head back to Camp Midway and split up. Indigo and Samson setting up the party’s campsite.   Danger goes to the camp’s mess hall, converted to a bar. Inside he finds a familiar face, Allew, the old Half-Elf who guarded the tunnels of the lost with her husband. She tells him that soon after the party left, a Doppelganger emerged from the the tunnels and attacked her husband. His injuries eventually killed him, and now she’s come alone to help out any way she can.   Daryl goes to the warbard camp and speaks with his sister Beyonce. He promises her he won’t use the dragon bond anymore, and will fight with the bards instead of on the front lines.   Mirian goes to the fighters and works with Cole Mirari to whip them into shape. He gives an objective downer of a speech that inspires them to be better. They play capture the flag.   Indigo and Samson make way for the bar, until Indigo finds a Druidic focus hanging on a hook nearby. He takes it, Kava’s focus, and looks across the way to see Lawrence Aarden.   Danger seduces a military commander at the bar and takes her to bed.   Samson doesn’t see Aarden, but the Warlock motions for Indigo to speak with him. Aarden has not yet bonded with Virescent. Their accord came to an end when Aarden used the blood-soaked focus of Kava to free the dragon. But when Aarden went to fight Merielle, he failed. Now he plans to head back to Virescent to bond with the dragon and become stronger. He tells Indigo all this as an apology and an explanation. Indigo tries to convince Aarden not to return, that Virescent is corruption personified, but Aarden was never really in the camp anyway. This was just a phantasm.   Daryl runs into someone he recognizes by the party’s tent. The cultist who survived their fight the first time they all went to Bard’s Haven. The ex-cultist asks Daryl if he can worship him, but Daryl instead tells him to go worship Mirian.   Mirian and Cole finish their game, giving one fighter command of the group.   Everybody meets back up in the bar. Cole asks how they fight in these epic wars when all he can do is fight for championships. Mirian convinces him that there is glory in fighting for what’s right, not just championships. He takes this to heart and agrees to fight in the coming battle.   The merchant deep gnome Danger and Daryl were after enters the bar. They flank him from both directions and capture him. He claims he doesn’t have their money, but Daryl uses magic to read his mind. He has a decent amount of gold back in his safe. They force the gnome to lead them to his safe and give up the gold inside.   On the way back they run into Earthshatter, the Goliath that Danger slept with. She’s pregnant now, and her tattoos are oddly fading. Her new nickname is Snow Hide. She challenges Danger to a tradition among her race, a fight to determine which parent a child will take more after. Danger has to be convinced to take part but he eventually does. During the fight, Snow Hide’s eyes glow white and she overpowers Danger. Some more of her tattoos fade but she wins the ceremonial fight.   Just then a dragon flies over camp. Cerulean. The Bonner army prepares to fight, but Daryl stands between them and talks them down. He explains that Cerulean is no longer dangerous, and lays bare what a Dragon Bond is.   Cerulean asks to speak with Daryl. He asks to do so in private, in the Camp Midway arena. Inside, it’s just the party and Cerulean. She’s been speaking with Braes, and he has a theory. The Bond is only a half measure. They can become more. Another trade of blood, with a dragon’s breath, can cause rebirth in a person. Make them dragonborn. She offers this to Daryl, and he accepts. They put hand to hand, blood to blood, and Cerulean breathes lighting onto Daryl until he is gone.   And he is reborn, the first dragonborn. The Blue Dragonborn.