Sunday, February 08, 2009

A surplus of dragons and wyverns

We left Montvale in the company of the bard "The Breeze" and headed up the mountain to Khrom-Vel's lair. We learned from The Breeze that the mountain was full of wyverns because Khrom-Vel wasn't able to keep them away; the dragon was badly injured by another dragon (Menulock, the black dragon) and then hurt further by a green dragon (Goro Sabaht, the one that had threatened us previously).

We traveled for hours and when the sun started to rise, we saw wyverns flying overhead; we avoided them then by hiding against the mountain and being lower than them, but when the returned from hunting, we were in their range of sight. Some of the party hide beneath their cloaks, but since that's not an option for me- bright red being extremely obvious, I cast "Tree" on myself, allowing the rest to hide under me (or in my branches, in the case of Dallas). The wyverns didn't notice, and continued past, hissing to each other. Linora, the draconic speaker, was unable to understand them.

We finally made it to the entrance of the lair, which was caved in; we went past to a cleft in the wall, and The Breeze found a hidden door. In the lair, all of Khrom-Vel's human sized furniture and things were covered in dust and cobwebs; obviously the dragon hadn't been able to shift to human form in a while. We found said dragon in his vault, laying on coins and with a huge wound on his belly. We gave him Goodberries and healing potions (all but one- I'm keeping one in case of emergency and wyvern battles) while Ghost bandaged him up, and his wound started to shrink. After he fell asleep, we all set about to clean and cook. SwampFox, Linora, and Caleb went hunting, Ayman cooked some soup, and I (and the hunters when the returned) cleaned up the lair.

When Khrom-Vel awoke, he thanked us and told us the story of how he had gotten injured. He had gone south to Woodland and met with the guildmaster (that had been with me and some members of the party), and learned about the goblin king allying with Menulock. He went in disguise with some mercenaries to the mines to the south, where they were led by Homer the halfling. They discovered the lair of the goblin king, but he was guarded by the black dragon who had been hiding in the shadows. Khrom-Vel transformed back to attack, but was beaten (all the mercenaries, with the exception of Homer who was small enough to escape, we killed) and thrown into the dungeon. Using all of his strength, Khrom-Vel subdued the guard and managed to escape.

While flying north, Khrom-Vel was attacked from below by Goro Sabaht, who wanted revenge; Khrom-Vel's cavern was once his, and he had killed his mate 300 years ago. Khrom-Vel used his icy breath to hold the other dragon off long enough to get home, but the green has been flying around the mountain, knowing that Khrom-Vel was injured. The Breeze had been hiding in Khrom-Vel's lair; the dragon got rid of his pursuers, and the man had been looking after him.

Ayman asked Khrom-Vel about the small (likely green) dragon that had been seen around, and Khrom-Vel told us that Menulock may have bred and it probably wasn't Goro Sabaht's. We also learned that our previous information had been incorrect, and that Menulock is actually a female dragon.

In return for helping him out, Khrom-Vel offered the party four sets of green dragon scale armor (Linora, Shocko, Ghost, and Caleb claimed these). He informed us that they belonged to the adventurers that had helped slay Goro Sabaht's mate (having come from her scales), and would definitely anger the green dragon.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
April 2, 5th day of Darkmoon