The party moves forward with a plan for taking out the dragon Logrivich, rescuing the opera singer Bella from the clock tower, and creating a distraction to pull the winter guard away from Baba's hut..... oh, but things never go as planned....
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| Frogicorn |
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| Logrivich |
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| Bella |
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| Ice Troll |
From the Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune:
Six days of preparations, six days of worries and fears. Six days of careful scouting of the tower. Six days of the press of the voices telling me to get at it already. Six days in the end for crap. Why is it that no matter what you plan, nothing ever seems to come of it?
We finished our preparations and journeyed to the clock tower. High and of stone it was, with one of the clock faces removed for the white wyrm. Late in the night we came to it ready to sneak in when it went on its patrol and realized we had forgotten something important. No place to hide had we to be close enough to go quickly up and in to the tower. Making do we hid in the alley near the tower and waited and watched. Yoska and I, pretending to be Stilyagi decided to brazen it out when the dragon did fly, stealth not being our strong point. I hiked up my skirts and held him close like a wanton couple playing in the dark. Dalomar and Sadobras picked out good spots and vanished into the shadows. The problem in the end was the Frogicorn. There just isn’t that much you can do to adequately hide a frog the size of a horse. Spotted by the dragon, the Frogicorn burst into motion, hopping a few hops then up into the air. Off the dragon went chasing the Frogicorn and off we went to steal into the tower while its occupant was away. Somehow we thought it would last longer and off we shot towards the tower. Hiking my spear between my legs to keep a good grip on it, I called on the spirits of the wind and air and launched into the sky. Zooming low across the streets and then popping up towards the tower I went. In mere seconds Yoska and I had both made the top of the tower, he on the ledge and I headed towards the entrance with a load of oil I had brought with. Before I could do anything though, a blast of freezing cold slammed into me. The dragon had finished off the distraction and returned faster than I could believe. Not huge in size, but awesome in appearance the dragon stood beside me. White and bitterly cold, with fearsome and terrible expression. Truly, in that moment I did understand why dragons were so feared, revered, and talked about. Even the constant din of voices in my head did seem to stop. Staring up at him I knew nothing, but a primal fear inside and knew I was about to become a midnight snack. Pulling myself together I called on the most powerful spell I knew and cast a lightning bolt at him. It seemed to hurt him, but in the same moment he used the opportunity to attack me back, draining my life greatly. Almost contemptuously, he lashed out again at me, hitting with claw and bite and tail till finally I was again down and near death.
After I was down, good Yoska, thinking that perhaps I was no longer with this world, flew into a frenzy and attacked the beast with a mighty and powerful blow. Electricity and fire ran through his weapon and the dragon let out a scream of pain. Dalomar and Sadobras soon came on the scene as Sadobras used a magic item that suddenly made a massive tree grow. Within seconds they too fought the dragon as the tree carried them up to us. Summoning two riding dogs, Sadobras attacked followed closely by Dalomar. With a mighty strike, Dalomar put an end to the dragon.
Moments later I was awake again as Sadobras poured a potion of healing into me. Coming to, I was greeted back into wakefulness by the attack of one of the white witches climbing out of a trap door in the floor. Old and gnarled she was, giving truth to the old witches saying, as within so without. Ugly of soul and full of lust for power she was. Still hurt and wounded I was, but here I was in my element. Calling again on the powers Grr granted me I cast a spell of blindness on the hag. She continued to fight, but without sight we made quick work of her. I healed myself and those wounded fighting the dragon and we evaluated what we had found. A huge horde of coins, magic items, and more were found and awaited claiming. Now more awake and aware of my surroundings I also noticed the gear works and clock bits we were surrounded by. Loud it was in the tower and we could hope those below didn’t hear us.
Soon Yoska took it upon himself to scout below to see where the Witch had come from. On the floor below he found the Opera singer and freed her from captivity. At about that time we learned that no, the gear-works noises had not sheltered us. Ice troll after ice troll ascended the stairs and each one after another we did slay. Having them come one at a time on the stairwell actually made it much easier to kill them than to take them all at once. After a time no more came up and we made ready to leave. The opera singer and I gathered up the treasure, but a shocking news she told us. Below there were children that were kept as food for the Ice Trolls. Finishing our gathering, I handed her a potion of invisibility and told her, “If it all goes wrong, drink this and run.” With that we went down to the next level. Dalomar, Sadobras, and Yoska were soon in battle with a huge attacking oven. The construct was filled with flame and hungry to eat us whole. Recognizing that this was perhaps not something my magics would be good for, I investigated a pile of crates and vegetables at the end of the hall. One can rarely have too many vegetables so this looked like a good chance to stock up. As I approached the pile though a new set of voices and crying came into my head as a strange creature rose up. Made of bits of string and buttons and cloth, leftovers and scraps, it seemed to be another haunt or construct of some kind. An attack on my will hit me and I was able to maintain control of my fears. Backing up I brought forth a web to slow the creature down and made my way back to the fight with the malevolent oven. Calmly strolling up to it, I told the others, “Ok, I don’t think I’ll be much use against that thing whatever the heck it is,“ and then channeled forth positive energy into my hands. I slapped the oven and within moments it did fall to pieces. Ha, Zaaz Bloodfortune, killer of ovens, conqueror of cutlery. To be fair, perhaps my companions did indeed weaken the oven up quite a bit first. Yoska, Sadobras, and Dalomar made quick work of the strange patchwork creature. All we needed to do now was find the children and free them, set off some fireworks, and then we could get back on with the rest of our quest….
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