[I am back on the Island once more, having survived our recent dungeon adventure. Myself (Rollo), Reinward and Fang are now ready to go and sell all the loot.]
DAY 621 (14th Uktar) (November) cont ...
I teleported us to Sasserine and we went to Gond's for the selling of the loot.
First we went to the Vanderboren mansion to get cleaned up.
When we got to Gond's I ordered:
A Periapt of Wisdom (+6) for 36,000 gp.
After that we decided to have a celebratory night out on the town. We only got as far as "The Cheesy Coxswain", a new tavern that had opened just down the street.
While we drank and moved about the place I kept my ear to the ground - listening for any news about the Shining Sea and Yag Island specifically. Nothing alarming, but then I didn't nose about too much.
Reinward started talking about wand chambers - which apparently is a way of combining a wand and a weapon.
'Sounds a bit kinky to me,' I opined.
This lead to a lot of banter about "wand chambers" for the rest of the night.
Fang was on a mission and did not stray far from the bar, knocking back drink after drink. We played darts with some other fellows, but Reinward's plans to try and hustle them were so complicated that the game rather fell apart. In the end he picked their pockets - of about 20 gold - fairly pointless after the fortune we had made out of the treasure that had come from the Wasp Dungeon.
The food at the Cheesy Coxswain wasn't up to much so we went to the market to get huge plates of deep fried fish and chips. Me and Fang entered an eating competition. I did ok - for a while - but Fang managed to eat everything and won - hmm, what did he win? - maybe just an unpredictable tummy in the morning!
After that we went to a tavern near the gates and proceeded to get drunk.
Towards the end of the night though, some party-pooper messenger arrived. He was in need of urgent help he said. He had just come from the east where a dragon was apparently threatening his village.
I don't know if this was the first tavern he had come to, or if someone had given him my name and location, my brain was a bit fuzzy at this point, but he seemed quite animated.
Reinward was not impressed. "How much is in it for us?" he asked.
I ordered some coffee and tried to focus. The man said he was Fulsan Hayward of the Hartsvale Watch. The dragons name was Valturnax. Valturnax was a large green dragon who had attacked the village previously, killing and injuring many.
He was demanding to become the villages ruler and that the men of the village become his soldiers. If this didn't happened the village would be destroyed tomorrow night. Fulsan had a map to the dragon's lair, but needed heroes to go and slay it.
My head was beginning to work again. The village was only a days ride away so I asked - "Is there a wizard's sigil for Hartsvale and can you draw it?"
When he said yes I said, "Then stable your horse at the Manor tonight and we will teleport to the sigil."
Back home I had Fulsan re-tell his story so I could write it down:
''
At nightfall – 8 o'clock – the day before, a large green dragon attacked the town, using his poison breath on several guards before killing and eating the local wizard. The dragon announced his name, Valturnax, and told the surviving guards and gawking villagers that Hartsvale was now his, and that he would be expecting “tribute”. Tribute involves half the town’s fighting age men serving as his militia.
Hartsvale’s men have little combat experience – most are simple farmers or fishers, and Valturnax already killed half the town guards.
If Hartsvale refuses to send him soldiers, they will be destroyed tonight at nightfall. Hartsvale doesn’t have much gold, but they can offer the rights to claim whatever treasure is available in the dragon’s hoard.
Valturnax has made his lair in a ruined temple to Bahamut, an hour into the forest of Hartsvale. It takes 4 hours to get to Hartsvale, and another hour to get to Valturnax’s lair.
Several villagers and some surviving guards reported seeing the dragon use magic during the fight – one said the dragon dispelled the wizard’s enchantments, and another claimed he saw the dragon turn invisible. A third said that he saw the dragon create an illusionary monster.
''
We had one more round of drinks and teleported to Hartsvale. Despite being a wee bit drunk and using a drawing of a sigil to land on, we arrived successfully. These boots of Teleportation have been a sound investment.
Hartsvale was a quaint, if somewhat singed stone village. The largest house belonged to the mayor and was half destroyed. Some villagers appeared to be packing up their belongings, getting ready to head west.
(The dragon killed 30 people. Out of 112. So 82 people still alive, but many were leaving for probably Sasserine.)
There was a temple so I headed over to it to see if I could help. I found an adept and talked to him. Meanwhile the "Chosen of Ilmater" wandered over to the wizard's house to see what he could rob.
At the temple were three seriously injured people in need of healing so I used Cure Light Wounds on them. Then Reinward came stumbling in and drew a dagger.
"This one is a goner! I'll deal with him *hic*!"
I slapped his hand away.
"Oh, go away, Ren!"
He then contented himself with picking the pockets of the unconscious victims laying about in the temple. That lad has no morals at all.
Later, once everyone was attended to, Reinward came to tell me off for helping people.
"Get some money off them first you fool!" he said.
"Fine words from the Chosen One!" I offered. "Ilmater is meant to help people isn't he?"
"Not exactly," replied Reinward the apparent expert. "He is the god of endurance, martyrdom and suffering. He's all for suffering."
"That's not how it works!"
Well, you get the idea, he was in one of those moods so I left him to his theological debates and went to check the rest of the village and helped three more people. One person I summoned and Earth Elemental for to help them out of the rubble.
Meanwhile, Reinward searched the rubble not for victims, but for loot. He found a pearl of power that had belonged to the unfortunate wizard.
Once things were settled down a bit we all went to an abandoned house and went to sleep.
DAY 622 (15th Uktar) (November)
I woke up and shook my head. It took a while to remember where I was. I then sighed and wondered - was I sober enough to take on a dragon?
We had breakfast then I took the map from Fulsan. The dragon was in a "collapsed temple" apparently. With Reinward and Fang with me it seemed safer to just walk there.
All the way there Reinward was teasing me about "wanting to save all the squirrels". I tried to punch him in the nuts be he easily dodged out the way.
He laughed and capered, taunting me, so I pointed a finger at him.
'Oh ho ho!' he said seeing that I was threatening to use magic. He put his hand on his bandolier of daggers.
It was tense for a moment, but then I checked the map and adjusted our path.
An hour later he was still asking me what I would do if he killed a squirrel.
"I'll squirrel you, you cunt," I snarled at him.
He then made up a song about saving squirrels. Then about putting his finger up animal's arses. Or saying I did it, not sure.
"Shut your stupid face, you stupid man," I tried.
He wouldn't shut his stupid face though so I turned into an eagle and took to the sky. He continued to shout at me so I gained enough height to be out of range of his jeering.
I could see the cliff we were headed for in the distance and flew there in a leisurely fashion so the others could follow. When we got there I landed and turned into a man.
As we come out from the trees, we saw a sheer cliff wall ahead. At the base of the cliff was a large cave entrance, set up with large stone doors. Regular foot traffic had created a dirt path in front of the cave.
In front of the cave, there was a few large stones. From behind one of the stones, a stick with some white strips of cloth tied to is shoved into the air, then waggled back and forth. In broken Common, a squeaky kobold voice shouted the word “Parlay” over and over again. Walking out from behind his stone, the two and a half foot tall lizard person was carrying a makeshift white flag in one hand and a burning torch in the other.
He squinted his eyes against the harsh daylight. He was wearing robes that bulged cartoonishly out from his body. He began waddling towards us, cringing in fear as he did so.
Reinward, ever the diplomat shouted out;
'What have you got under fucking robes, fud?
"I no fud,' answered the kobold. 'I am Raznark.'
I gave the oafish "Chosen One" a look and took over the talking.
'We just want to pass through your caves.'
Fang, who had been silent the entire journey decided to leer at the poor creature in an intimidating manner, but it was a wasted effort as Raznark was already terrified.
Again I had to push an imbecile out of the way. I said;
'We want to go have a word with Valturnax. We mean you no harm."
Raznark seemed willing to do what ever it took to resolve the situation peacefully but he did mention there were lots of traps in the caves. Reinward talked to him on that subject and it was decided Raznark would lead us through a safe route.
Raznark just wanted to protect his people and we gave him 100 gold to sweeten the deal.
As we walked in he said we should reconsider going anywhere near the dragon. I pointed out I was wearing dragonhide armour.
"Not my first dragon rodeo," I said.
"Well," he continued. "Watch out for the two starved crazy hill giants then and the
Booyag that oozes with magic."
"Right you are."
The cave tunnel we went through was protected with ballista and trip mines. These protected areas where the young and the eggs were kept. He showed us what was under his robes - a suicide bomb - that he would have set off had we appeared threatening.
I was doing pretty well so far, I thought, not to have been blown up, considering I was in the company of nincompoops.
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