Into the Lair

Expedition

Natalya, Nerlureel, Tarin, Fuqwigt, and Almyr get dropped off in front of the entrance to Sethrekar's lair. They meet a friendly pseudodragon who takes a liking to Natalya. They explore the depths of the lair and Tarin finds a magical sword. They also awaken a giant suit of armor that scares Sethrekar away and chases the party out of the lair. Luckily Ukris finds them and they escape. The pseudodragon escapes with them, clinging to Natalya. She names him Kotsik.

Natalya clung to Ukris scales as he soared them over the desert in the light of the moon. It reminded Natalya of soaring over Flottenheim on the back of Fenneck's pegasus as they soared through the clear, cool skies. Ahead they saw a large outcropping of rock on which sat a balcony. Ukris soared passed it though and landed at the base of the small mountain. "Alright," he addressed them cautiously as he looked around for any sign of danger. "The entrance is just there," he said, motioning to a large hole in the rock. "Be careful! And as soon as you have the candle make it to here or the balcony and I'll come find you!" he promised them.   "Sounds good," Nerlureel said, climbing off the back of the beast. The rest started to follow, except for Kai and Tebi who had decided to try and scout out the small town of Breezehaven not too far from here. Kai gave Natalya an understanding look.   "We'll hopefully see you all soon," he promised, clearly fearful of what awaited he and Tebi in Breezehaven. "Good luck," she told him. "Let's hope luck is on both of our sides," she mused as she looked into the gaping hole.   Nerlureel led the way into the mountian as Ukris took off into the skies. Natalya and Tarin closely followed the large dragonborn as Fargrum and Almyr took up the rear. The floor of the tunnel was sand and the walls were a dark clay rock. They moved cautiously in the light of a torch until the sand on the ground in front of them started to shake.   They all instinctively drew their weapons and watched in anticipation as the sand shook away and tiny white dragon popped his head out of the sand and looked up at them with a quirky tilt of his head. "What is it?!" Tarin exclaimed in fear as the little dragon pulled himself out of the sand and shook his little scales and wings out like a wet dog. He was about the size of a house cat.   "He's a pseudodragon," Natalya said, gently kneeling down to study the creature. He squinted his eyes at her distrustfully. Natalya reached into her pouch a pulled out one of her ball bearings, small marbles used to trap or trip people and she gently rolled it over to the little dragon.   The little dragon cautiously reached out his neck and sniffed at the little ball before nuzzling his nose against it, promting it to roll over the sand. It's eyes lit up excitedly and he quickly ran over to it and swiped his foot at it and started playing with it as if he was a cat playing with a toy.   Tarin leaned down and giggled as he watched the dragon playing. "He's so cute!" he exclaimed. Natalya giggled as she thought about how much the dragon reminded her of Leesa. "Hi, little guy," she said to the small dragon who perked his head up at her before carefully grabbing the ball in his mouth and walking over to her and rubbing his head affectionately against her hand.   She suddenly felt him enter her thoughts and she shook her head in surprise. It wasn't exactly cohesive thoughts, just happy, friendly energy. She smile at him and he nuzzled her again. "Wanna hang out with us for a little while?" she asked him and he nodded excitedly before flapping his wings and flying up to perch on Natalya's shoulder.   "At least this dragon's nice," Tarin said as he reached us a hand to pet the little creature. The dragon nuzzled against Natalya's neck and she giggled at the interesting creature. "Let's keep going," she told Nerlureel.   They continued down the dark and creepy tunnels until they came to a large pool of deep water. The room was lit with torches and in the bottom of the pool there was a shiny black box of some sort that they could barely make out from the glint of the torchlight.   "Come on," Nerlureel motioned them to the other end of the room. "I really doubt the candle is down there," he mused. Natalya nodded in agreement and cast one more look back at the mysterious box before following Nerlureel up to a fork in the path.   "Should we split up?" Fargrum offered. "Cover more ground that way." Natalya cast a nervous look at Nerlueel and shook her head. "It's safer if we stay together," she decided. They continued to the left first and walked into a giant foyer of some sort.   All around the large space were skeleton soldiers lying on the ground as if a major battle had taken place here hundreds of years before. As they walked deeper into the creepy dark room Natalya felt the little dragon on here shoulder growing nervous and he dug his claws into cloak, sending an uncomfortable shiver down Natalya's spine.   "Be careful," she muttered under her breath. Suddenly the torch they were holding illuminated a throne in the center of the room upon which sat what looked like the skeleton of a king, still wearing a throne and tattered robes. Tarin gasped in awe and fear of the creepy sight and started walking toward the figure.   "Tarin!" Nerlureel frantically whispered. "Cool!" Tarin said, ignoring his worried father and walking straight up to the throne and circling around it before stopping suddenly as he saw the back of it. "Tarin! Get away from there!" Nerlureel begged him.   Tarin's eyes started to reflect a blue light coming from behind the throne and he reach forward and drew what looked like a magical sword from the back of the large chair. As he did the room illuminated in a bright blue and purple glow and winds seemed to shoot out from sword and the room was suddenly engulfed in the light of torches and chandeliers that filled the space, revealing it to look like some sort of ballroom.   Natalya turned as she heard the clatter of bones and suddenly saw the skeletons in the room stand up simultaniously and turn to stair at them. "Oh shit," Fargrum said drawing his sword. "Wait," Natalya held out her arm to stop him as she noticed the skeleton's were looking at Tarin, who was too absorded by the glowing sword to notice.   "Tarin!" Nerlureel whispered fearfully to his son, hoping not to upset the room full of skeletons. "Put that back!" Tarin slowly shook his head. "No," he said softly. "It's mine now," he said decisively as he stared at the beautiful glowing blade. He slowly lowered it and walked over to them, the skeletons heads turned to watch him, still seeming unhostile.   "Let's go," Natalya decided. "Carefully, before the skeletons decide to stop us. Tarin, lead the way," she told the boy. Tarin nodded and lead the way back out to the fork, the skeletons stepping aside to make way for the boy. As they existed the hall the pseudodragon released his claws and seemed to relax more as they turned the corner into the other room.   This room was much smaller but it sent an uneasy feeling through Natalya. It was a space that was lit by torches. In front of them was a few feet of sand before a large pile of treasure, upon which sat a little brass candle.   "There it is!" Tarin exclaimed excitedly before stepping forward on the sand. Natalya's instincts kicked in as the sand below Tarin's feet shifted weird and she reach out and grabbed the sruff of the boy's collar and yanked him back just in time as the sand in front of them disappeared, opening a large, gaping hole in front of them that was maybe ten, fifteen feet wide chasm.   "AHHH!" Tarin exclaimed in fear as Natalya pulled him back onto steady land. Fargrum leaned down to help. Nerlureel started nursing a headache, clearly stressed out by Tarin's ability to fall into trouble. "Be careful," Natalya scolded Tarin who nodded guiltily. "Sorry," he muttered. Natalya looked across the way and pulled out a coil of rope.   "I'll tie this to an arrow and fire it into the wall over there," she explained as she handed the other end to Nerlureel. "Hold it taught and I'll climb across, grab it and you can pull me back," she decided. "That seems dangerous," Fargrum mused as he looked down into the black, endless pit in front of them. "If only one of us had wings," Tarin said sadly.   Natalya looked over at the little dragon who was happily looking around the room as he perched on her shoulder. "Hey," she got it's attention. "Will you fly over and grab that candle?" she asked it. The little dragon nodded happily to her and flew off her shoulder and landed on the top of the pile of treasure and carefully picked up the candle in it's claws before flying back to them and dropping it into Natalya's hands.   "So you have good ideas sometimes?" she teased Tarin. "Come on, let's get out of here," she decided. "Lets try to find the balcony in case theres some information there," Fargrum decided. Nerlureel frowned. "You really think that us being framed for murder had something to do with these dragons meeting up?" he asked the half-elf. Fargrum shrugged. "It's the only thing we have to go off of for now," he pointed out.   "Not everything," Natalya mused. "What do you mean?" Nerlureel asked her. She shrugged. "I can't kick the feeling that this has to be political," she told them. "I don't know about you all and your lives, but the sightstone showed me killing the king. I don't exactly have the... cleanest... reputation," she pointed out. "And I'm marrying a duke in the coming months and my greatest enemy is the ruler of a neighboring kingdom who would love nothing more than to dismantle Thymryu and Glitterfjell to open them up for an attack."   Nerlureel shrugged. "That doesn't explain the rest of us," he pointed out. "Besides, we didn't even know each other until the ferry boat..." He pursed his lips. "Do you trust Kai? It's a pretty tall tale to try and convince us his body guard is a prince, that conveniently no one knows about."   "What's your story?" Natalya asked Fargrum suspiciously. "You clearly hold some kind of higher position here." She gestured to his fancy armor. He waved his hands in defense. "I'm just a cleric," he promised. "I have some... sketchier royal family ties in Wrenchrise, but I left that godsforsaken country years ago to escape them," he promised. Natalya looked over at the half-orc who was tossing pebbles into the chasm absentmindedly and decided it wouldn't be worth it.   "Let's just see if there's any information we can find and we'll get out of here," Nerlureel decided. They walked back down the hallway and into the room with the pool where they all stopped dead in their tracks.   Towering in front of them was a giant blue dragon with his huge wing outstretched before them. The dragon was a royal blue color with a golden-yellow underbelly and a giant golden horn on the front of it's snout. It's tail looked like the tail of the crocodiles Natalya had seen in the river alonside Sivania and it's eyes glowed like white balls of light. Natalya felt the psuedodragon start quivering in fear against her and she found herself muttering a prayer to Corellon under her breath.   "You really thought you could get away with sneaking in here and taking my things?" the dragons voice boomed down to them. "You thought you could steal from the mighty Sethrekar?! Ukris was a fool to put his trust in such a pathetic bunch! It's such a shame you won't make it to see our magnificent plan-" The dragon was suddenly cut off as a giant black tablet shot out of the water and wacked him across the face.   He growled in pain before his body froze in fear as a giant figure in a black set of armor that growed red at the seems arose from the water and started stomping towards them all threateningly. Setherkar turned and quickly started darting away throught the tunnels in fear. The rest of them decided not to risk it and took off after the dragon, deciding not to tempt fate.   As they ran through the tunnels and made it to the entrance they had entered they saw it had been collapsed and they quickly started running throught the path the dragon had taken before they finally ended up on a large balcony where they could see Sethrekar flying off into the night sky. "Where's Ukris?!" Tarin exclaimed as they reached the railing.   Natalya turned and saw the giant suit of armor, continuing toward them and she drew her bow and fired and arrow at it's head but the arrow clinked off with out making a scratch. "Shit!" she exclaimed before turning to look down at the giant drop below them. "We will die from that," Nerlureel said, following her thought process.     The armor raised it's giant fist and went to slam it down ontop of Natalya and she gracefully dodged it and ran to the opposite end of the balcony. Thankfully, at that moment she heard another flapping of wings and looked up to see Ukris flying down to pick them up. "Hop on!" he told them as he flapped alongside the balcony. Natalya didn't wait and she leapt of the railing and landed on the dragon's back next to Fargrum and Tarin, they were quickly followed by Nerlureel and Almyr and Ukris took off, back toward his home. Natalya clutched his scales and sighed in relief as the suit of armor disappeared in the distance.   After an hour of flying throught the desert, now ablaze with the rising sun they finally arrived in Ukris' layer and she slid off the dragon's back. She felt the little white dragon nuzzle against her as she remembered he was still perched on her shoulder. The others climbed off and Natalya took a deep breath as she looked around the conversation hall.   Ukris walked over to his bed and settled in. "I managed to get your other friends Kai and Tebi into Breezehaven," he said before turning to look at them. "Hopefully they're able to figure out a plan. What about you all? I can't believe I walked you into a trap! When I saw Sethrekar fly into the liar I just knew you'd all die because of my stupid plan. What on earth was they thing chasing you all? I've never seen Sethrekar so scared!" he exclaimed.   "We don't know," Nerlureel told him. "It was a suit of armor, but I don't think anyone was inside it. It was taller than me even!" Ukris nodded. "Did anything else happen?!" he asked excitedly. Tarin pulled out his sword. "I found this! There was a room full of skeletons and they came alive when I took it! They didn't attack us though," he said as he showed off his new weapon.   Ukris studied the blade and nodded. "Sethrekar likes to collect all matters of items," he mused. "This looks quite ancient though..." Tarin nodded. "I... I felt called to it somehow and it's easy for me to summon my magic into it!" he told the dragon. Ukris cocked his head curiously. "Very interesting indeed, young adventurer," he told Tarin who smile proudly.   "Here," Natalya said as she pulled the candle out of the pouch on her belt and handing it towards Ukris. "Hopefully this is the right one." Ukris' eyes lit up with joy as he carefully took the candle from Natalya. "Oh thank you thank you thank you!" he told them excitedly. "Oh wonderful! It's perfect isn't it?!" he asked Natalya. "Do you think she'll like it?" Natalya nodded and smiled at the adorable, love-struck dragon. "She'll love it," she told him. "She must be pretty special huh?"   Ukris seemed to blush and hide his face bashfully from Natalya's gentle teasing. "Oh, I mean, she's... she's very pretty," he explained sweetly. "I just get so nervous when I see her. I can't seem to speak and... and my tongue swells up," he said nervously. "Do you all have any experience dealing with such things?" he asked them rather desperately.   Natalya chuckled. "Love is tricky," she mused. "I'm probably not the best one to give advise but I have learned that being up front and honest about things tends to make life easier, but I'm also the one who ran away from home months before my wedding because I got nervous."   She sighed in despair as she worried about Fenneck and how much she was starting to regret this decision. Ukris nodded and gave her an understanding smile. "Look," he said. "You've helped me out so much. Why don't you all eat and rest and I'll take to Breezehaven first thing tomorrow and hopefully you can get back to your homes.""Sounds good," Nerlureel said, patting Tarin on the shoulder. "My stomach was growling all through that stupid lair!" he commented as they all made their way into the dining hall.   After dinner, Natalya curled up on a bedroll and watched her companions fall asleep. The little pseudodragon looked up at her expectantly. "You really want to tag along with me, huh?" she asked him. He nodded happily and crawled into her lap. Natalya gently petted his little head. "What should I name you?" she asked him as he started making a low growling sound that reminded her of a purring housecat. "How about Kotsik?" she asked him. He pondered this for a moment before nodding excitedly and licking her cheek with his forked tongue. Natalya giggled. "Hopefully Fenneck and Leesa like you," she teased him as they curled up together as she started meditating.