Session 17: Dungeon Speedrun

General Summary

After preparing thoroughly, the party, now reunited with Boddynock Nackle, left Morheim and headed towards the location that was marked as the lair of a red dragon, and the location where they might be able to get a few dragon eggs. After a day of travelling, they managed to reach Worm's Burial. A village built inside the skeleton of a massive purple worm. Inside Himmler and Ushrir went to the local cartographers to try and find information about the mountain they were headed towards. They found that the lair was the ruined dwarven stronghold of Err'Haldur, which had been taken over by the red dragon Valthruna. They also managed to find out that the fortress had several secret passages, which would later come in handy. The rest awaited them at the local inn, where Thomas was severely scammed when he got the group their lodgings. The next day they headed out into the mountains. After an entire day, they managed to reach the edges of the dragon's domain, where the skies grew dark and the ground opened into volcanic fissures. Taking shelter in a shallow cave the group spent the night in Err'Haldur's shadow. The next day they approached the mountain that contained the massive fortress, but as they came upon the giant gate they saw movement. Heiwa, with Boddynock on her back, took to the skies to scout the area. She saw a group of red-scaled kobolds dragging a large sack into the mountain. With her silent wings, they narrowly avoided detection. That's when Heiwa's sharp vision managed to see another opening in the mountain that might allow them to sneak in undetected. Together they made it down to the massive river of lava that came out of the opening. Along the edges, they made it into the mountain and later, through a secret passage, they made it into Err'Haldur undetected. Heiwa, not one to enjoy the underground, decided to stay outside and keep a lookout, should anything happen. After a while of searching, the group came upon a hidden room in the former home of the Stonebeard Clan where they found two kobolds fighting over what they later found to be the egg of a fire drake. These kobolds, which the party named One-eye and Skinny, didn't pay the group any attention so they began to bet on the fight. In the end, Thomas and Himmler lost 10 gold each as Skinny knocked his opponent out. Angered by the result, Himmler marched in to take vengeance upon the kobold but was almost knocked out himself. Almost. After tying the kobolds together they began to question Skinny, who was fooled into revealing the location of his stash. After which Himmler knocked him out again. Soon thereafter Boddynock tried to scout ahead, but inadvertently alerted the enemies to their location. On the dwarf's behest, they dug down and prepared to make a stand. When a voice commanded them to give back some eggs they became confused as the kobolds only spoke draconic. But when Himmler responded by insulting the person's mother and father in elven, the being wasn't surprised. But when he instead said the same in dwarven, the person became befuddled as well. He backed away and tried to initiate diplomacy. To which Himmler responded by threatening him, and properly insulting his mother as he opened the door. This time in the common speech. He took this personally. Revealing his true form as a young red dragon he roared loudly in anger before blasting them with fire, incinerating his kobold guards in doing so, but also knocking Ushrir onto death's door. Himmler backed up in shock. Boddynock fled in panic as the fight began. A fight that would not last long. As Himmler fell back, Thomas shot his weapon at the beast when it came into the room, but noticed that his shots either bounced off of its scales or did little to no damage. He stomped down on Ushrir, pulling him closer to death. Boddynock looked back and saw his comrades make a stand to save the paladin. And for the first time in a long time, courage took hold of him and he screamed at the dragon that he had the eggs and tossed in an insult for good measure. The dragon came after him and left the others. Narrowly did Boddynock manage to escape into the secret passage which was too small for the dragon. There he joined Heiwa in hiding and hoped that the others would make it out. Thomas hurried over and poured a healing potion into Ushrir, who woke up with his wounds closed. Together, the three ran in the direction from which the dragon had come so as to not run into the offended dragon again. However, as they entered the room that was the main entrance to the fortress, they found an army of kobolds heading in their direction. So began the chase across the dungeon that would take them into the fire drakes domain, the kobolds barracks, a dueregar jeweling workshop, and a dormant teleportation circle. Along the way, they kicked down several locked doors and fooled several kobolds to head the wrong way. In the end, they found themselves in a hatchery. Though not a hatchery for dragon-eggs there were a lot of interesting and exotic eggs ripe for the taking. Whilst Thomas fooled the guardians the dwarfs took as many eggs as they could carry, as fast as they could. They then continued and found themselves in the innermost sanctum, looking out onto a lake of lava with an island in the middle. On the island, they saw the dragon's treasure hoard and pool of eggs, but realising that they reached the end of the road they doubled back to the closest door that they hadn't tried yet. Through this passage, they managed to find another hidden path out of the lair and rushed through it. Thus they met back up with Heiwa and Boddynock and ran along the cliffs out of the mountain with their prize.