The sound of beating, leathery wings echoes around the cavern, Farraine's sword begins to omit an ominous glow. The last remaining goblin charges towards the Fighter, raising it's bow and drawing back the string. It releases the tension and an arrow flies through the air, missing Farraine by mere millimetres. Finn, seeing this, edges out from the shadows and fires his crossbow at the goblin, the bolt cutting through the fetid air of the cavern and burying itself in the ear of the goblin. The point emerging, covered in goop on the other side. The Goblin slumps to the floor.
Suddenly out of nowhere a massive green dragon appears above and breathes a cloud of noxious green gas the party braces themselves, holding their breath for as long as possible. Eventually they have to take a breath and as they inhale the sharp sting of poison is remarkably absent. Sigrid notices that her Mastiff pooch is also unaffected by the fumes surrounding them. Once again all is not as it appears in this lair our heroes must be vigilant. The sudden appearance of the mighty Dragon sends shivers down Lucian's spine and he freezes in horror, he quickly mutters a spell and a number of glowing orbs appear above his head and begin circling around him. Garrick grasps his Holy Symbol and as his feet leave the ground and he rises up into the air an orb of protective twilight surrounds him. With a wall of thorns and brambles separating Sigrid, Lucian and Finn from the action Sigrid uses her Druidic abilities to wild shape into a giant eagle. She beats her wings and takes to the skies, scooping up Lucian in one talon and her dog in the other. Finn watches in bemusement as the three of them soar over his head an over the wall of thorns towards the battle on the other side.
Sigrid drops Lucian and the pooch a relatively safe distance from the fearsome dragon but as she does so she notices something strange. The Dragon shimmers slightly and pops out of sight reappearing right next to the three of them, it appears that the dragon they all saw disappear was an illusion all along and Vorgansharax in the flesh now hovers in uncomfortable proximity to our heroes. The Dragon's tail swipes at the Druid, knocking the air from her lungs as more Goblins make their way into the massive cavern. The abandoned Halfling moves closer to Farraine who is floating in the air just over the other side of the wall of thorns and asks for "Uppies". Once again the Dragon's tail smashes into the winged Druid, she tumbles to the ground an eagle no more. As Sigrid lies on the cavern floor the Vorgansharax swipes it's claws, tearing gouges in her flesh, its jaw's bites at her arm as she tries to beat it away. Sigrid's screams echo around the cavern. Lucian quickly weighs the situation, he had no intention of being quite so close to the action. He quickly mutters a spell and disappears from sight, reappearing over the other side of the cave. Lightning sparks from his fingertips towards the Dragon, sparks cascade over it's scaled body and it roars in pain. Garrick tries a spell of his own, the dragon wreathes in pain as the effects of the spell surge through it's veins, the agony soon passes though and the dragon turns towards Lucian. Garrick takes the opportunity to cast a quick healing spell on the fallen Sigrid.
Farraine turns away from the dragon and glides over the wall of thorns towards the awaiting Finn who nimbly jumps up onto the Fighter's back. Sigrid staggers to her feet, blood still dripping from the claw marks across her chest she moves away from the dangerous dragon calling for her dog to attack it as she does so. Alas the strength of the canine's attack is nowhere near sufficient and the dragon swipes it away, propelling it across the cavern and hard into the far wall. It lets out a final yelp before transforming back into an onyx statue. Vorgansharax faces down Lucian who crouches behind a large boulder.
"Another Bumblebeard I see, I'm going to enjoy watching you fail" *(or words to that effect)* The party all turn to look at the Wizard, it appears Lucian has not told them everything when it comes to the Dragon hovering before them.
Finn peeks over the shoulder of the flying Farraine and fires a quick shot at Vorgansharax but the bolt bounces harmlessly off the dragon's scaled hide. It beats its leathery wings and moves within striking range of the Wizard. It swipes with its sharpened claws, tearing through Lucian's robes, blood drips onto the cavern floor. But Vorgansharax is not done yet, he takes another swipe at the Wizard followed by a crushing bite of its jaw. Lucian screams in agony and sinks to one knee, he manages to muster some magic once more and teleports as far from the beast as he can. With all the strength he has remaining Lucian casts a ball of fire at the Dragon. Searing flames scorch the savage creature, a loud roar fills the cave but Vorgansharax remains as menacing as ever. It looks like our heroes may have vastly underestimated their opponent on this occasion.
Farraine, with the halfling still perched on his back, hanging on for dear life, is still a fair distance from the dragon, whose form is obscured from sight by the swirling green mist that fills the cave. He glides through the air in an attempt to get closer and finally enter this fight. Garrick takes the opportunity to cast another healing spell, this time on the bleeding Lucian who slowly gets to his feet followed by flaming strike which sends a streak of flaming energy at the Dragon's hide. Despite hitting his target the dragon remains unperturbed and breathes out a plume of poisonous gas. The green noxious cloud envelopes Farraine, Garrick and Finn, entering their lungs, damaging them from the inside.
Farraine has had enough of this, it is time he entered the fray. With the upmost of reckless abandon he soars through the air towards the source of the poisonous breath. As the green mist thins Farraine suddenly finds himself much closer to the Dragon as he had initially planned. The Ancient Creature smiles (as much as a dragon can smile at least) noticing the shock on the fighters face, this is going to be too easy.
Farraine returns the smile with one of his own "Say hello to my little friend"
The head of the Halfling suddenly pops up over the shoulder of the fighter crossbow raised, a deadly bolt of dragon slaying perched in the bolt groove. Finn takes a deep breath, time seems to slow, the beat of the dragon's wings almost imperceptible, all sound is muffled. It's now or never. Finn squeezes the trigger, the catch releases the bow string and the heavy bolt zips through the air. The hardened scales are no match for the projectile as it tears through the beast's flesh puncturing vital organs as it makes it's way through the body of Vorgansharax. A mighty roar of agony, tinged with a hint or surprise, shakes the earth as blood drips from the gaping wound. With this single blow the little Halfling has turned the tide of the battle and our heroes who had looked completely outmatched sense victory for the first time.
In retaliation, the dragon swipes at Farraine knocking him backwards. Finn quickly loads a regular bolt from his quiver and once again fires at heavily injured creature. The bolt hits it's mark and blood begins to ooze from the fresh wound on the Dragon's neck. Vorgansharax tries to cast a spell of its own but Lucian, with a look of fresh determination etched on his face, counters the dragon's magic and instead fires another ball of flame at beast. Flames sear the flesh of the dragon, a deafening roar of pain fills the cavern and is suddenly silenced as a lance of flaming magic from Garrick spears the creatures skull, incinerating all the flesh from its bones both inside and out. The mighty creature falls to the ground with a thud and our heroes turn to face the goblins but they are nowhere to be seen. I guess the death of Vorgansharax was their cue to get as far from these warriors as possible.
Farraine, with Finn still firmly on his back descends to the cave floor, Garrick steps lightly on the soil next to them. Lucian and Sigrid join them as they take a moment for some inner reflection and to appreciate the gravity of their accomplishment. "Right, lets go find the loot", Farraine says. The Party explore the massive cavern and eventually find a veritable mountain of coins and gems. Garrick takes out his portable hole and he and Finn use their mage hands to scoop all of the dragon's hoard into it. With the pile now safely contained the party turn their attention back to the corpse of Vorgansharax, Finn takes out his tailors tools and marks out patterns on the creature's hide and begins cutting away at the scaled skin, Garrick performs a little draconic dentistry and places a number of teeth in his backpack. Farraine takes out his mighty sword and cleaves through the neck of the dragon, it's charred skull will make another fine addition to the décor of Trollskull Manor.
"Time to go? We need to inform Vajra Safahr of our success" Lucian takes out his chalk and draws a magical circle on the cavern floor, the party step inside and disappear from sight. In the basement of Trollskull Manor there is a familiar pop as our heroes merge from the mystic portal. It takes them no time at all to realise that something isn't right. ale coats the basement floor and there is the smell of blood in the air. They quickly make their way up the stairs and notice that the casks of ale have been smashed, Ozen and Byron are nowhere to be seen and a manacled Otto lies dead on the tavern floor. Scanning the bar they noticed that the portrait of Beef has been defiled and an arrow is ticking into the painted face of their fallen friend. Anger courses through their veins as they quickly head out of the front door, in the street lie a number of dead bodies and the City Watch are interviewing members of the public. Seth Crawley walks over to our heroes and tells them that it appears that the bar was attacked by a number of armed thugs that reportedly came up from the sewers and from the looks of things this has all the hallmarks of something personal as the vault remains untouched. From the looks of the devastation it appears that the City Watch took out a number of the perpetrators. Garrick thanks the Captain for his assistance and asks to be kept informed of any future developments in his investigation.
As our heroes stand in the street and survey the devastation in front of them a small urchin boy approaches. He tugs at Garrick's trouser leg, "Excuse me sir, I saw their leader, it was a dwarf with a crossbow instead of an arm, he was shouting at the others to take the Troll Skull". Garrick thanks the boy and tosses him a coin. It appears that Noska Ur'Gray has entered the narrative once more.
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