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The morning after, Kelda and Ulfnaar both had peculiar smiles on their faces. The group decided to fly back to Luskan, to tie up some loose ends, rest, shop and do fill up the supplies for the expedition to the Northern passage.
Ater goes back to reconnect with Alba back at One Eyed Jack’s, and meet Zandor Zord again, and as it happened, Zandor Zord is the Chairman of the Rime Runners and the person who had hired Lute. One Eyed Jack’s quickly become a second home for the group, and Ulfnaar, Kelda and Ulf discuss navigation and the best way to find the missing wizard Maketh Crimson of the Arcane brotherhood of Luskan. Ulf says that the best way is to contact the ice hunters, nomad people living on the ice by fishing and hunting. Ater decides to offer Zandor Zord some of the expensive saké that was rescued from the Zorborgs private vault, and it was beyond delicious, and it should be, at a price of 30 pieces of gold per bottle. 30 pieces of gold could buy you fifteen sheep or ten cows, just to make everyone understand how expensive the saké was.
One evening, after Ater had been looking into the group’s financial situation, as the wyverns really literally ate a huge hole in the cash flow, he remembered something. He remembers that at the bank in Phandalin during the Dragon Cultists attack, they had an Ogre, that wore a collar, that made him just a tiny little figure. When the collar was removed, he turned into a full sized Ogre and could carry the banks gold reserve. Maybe some of the really powerful Wizards here in Luskan could craft such items for the wyverns? Imagine turning the food consumption of half a dozen sheep a day into half a dozen ship rats a day, and where will we find sheep up on the ice passages. Ater contacts the Arcane brotherhood of Luskan and talks with some of the wizards, and after some quick negotiations, a price is settled for four magic shrinking collars designed to work on wyverns. The groups chest with bars of gold and silver, that was recently freed from the vault of Zorborg, was partly returned, half of the chests were returned after an agreement with the Rime Runners, all the chests containing silver, so the gold would cover the collars, if some of party members chipped in about a thousand pieces of gold. Ulfnaar, Kelda and Celthor chipped in, and Ameiko traded in her magic kusarigama now when she had Suishen. Linarril was a little short of cash, but instead he helped Celthor to refill his healing flask of the unicorn.
Ater was mighty impressed with the Wyvern cage, and Linarril spent lot's of time with Skygie while on the ship.
Very good
pictures look just great. I will try to catch up with the story in a week or two, after my exams.
Simply amazing. Story is very good and pictures are fantastic. I don't know if I will ever reach that quality level
The ship flew for several days and nights to the north, out to the sea of moving ice. A long search began for a mountain in the sea of moving ice, Oyaviggaton. After being fooled by a group of ice hunters to search in the wrong direction, the group finally found the mountain.
Linnaril did some scouting, in a seabird wild shape, and came back with a full report to Ater. There are some huge skeletons on the beach, could be dragons, but more likely whales. Several small canoes are beached along the shore where the island is flat. The mountain has a crown of sharp tall spikes of rock and ice, but in the center is a plateau with a large village, looks like something the ice hunters would live in.
The group landed the airship outside the ice hunters village, and was greeted, somewhat hostile, and all villages started to shout something in a strange language. Ameiko used comprehend languages and translated. Out champion should fight their champion in a duel, to prove us worthy, Ulfnaar had already stepped forward before Ameiko had the chance to ask for a volunteer. From a tent came a huge man, over seven feet tall, and the crowd shouted “Orca Heart! Orca Heart!” A tough fight that Ulfnaar won, not easy, but he won.
A woman dressed like a chieftain came forward speaking common and were invited to a dinner with the ice hunters clan. The meal was the worst thing Ulfnaar ever had, and he has had many things. For starters, it was a well hung seal eye soup, and for main course, fermented whale meat, called sour whale. The smell was horrible Ulfnaar almost threw up, and the taste, he can’t even think about it.
After the dinner, when the group was heading back to the ship, a woman from the ice hunters, gave the group a small potion, whispering, drink this or you will die. The group of heroes had been poisoned, the ice hunters was all under control by the evil ancient white dragon Arauthator, the white death. And they were to be dinner for the dragon tomorrow.
The mountain was full of level after level of tunnels, and after some sneaking and asking around, we figured out that Maccath the Crimson Wizard from Luskan was here, but subdued, and she was not in for a ride to attack and take out the dragon. After some negotiations, she agreed to share some of the treasures she had borrowed from Arauthator, if the group decided to actually go through with the plan. The group also encountered a group of IceToads, led my the highly intelligent researcher Marfulb, lady Marfulb. Ater talks with them and says that they might continue their research in Candlekeep, the ticket to enter is to bring a book of research to the library. They have many books. Ater btw, was raised in Candlekeep, which can explain his obsession with books and knowledge.
We fought some kobolds and ice-trolls, and in the morning we all woke up more powerful than ever, we had all grain yet another level of experience. When the time came, Maccath gave the group a good collection of magical artefacts to use, like two arrows of dragonslaying, which Celthor put into his quiver and Ater got some scrolls, Ulfnaar didn’t really understand what they were, and then the group went down to the lowest level, a system of ice caverns and and ice hills, with dark ice cold water between them. A fight of life and death, but the teamwork worked and the dragon was defeated.
'The work then began, to clear Oyaviggaton of unwanted followers of dragons, like the Kobolds. The Ice hunters were not keen to stay, they had been oppressed by the dragon for generations.
The Dragon’s hoard was huge, he had a treasure room filled with frozen well preserved enemies ha had killed, like a Kraken, and numerous other beasts. But now, his fate was sealed.
Among the more strange things was a huge viking ship, a legendary ship built from magic wood that made it only weight half the weight of a normal ship. There were two issues that had to be solved. One, the ship did not fit through the opening and two, it was built wrong. After some thinking, they figured out that the Kobolds has disassembled the ship, carried the pieces into the cave, and then assembled it again, but did some fatal beginner errors.
Linnaril and Ater spent hours trying to figure out how to get the ship out through the narrow tunnel through which is once came in, in parts, like an IKEA bookshelf. Easy to carry in in flat packets, a nightmare when you move out. The ship, named Night Wind, was built with duskwood, was really magnificent where it stood, in the ice.
At the same time, Celthor made a deal with the ice-hunters, to help with taking care of the dragon skin, teeth, claws, and blood. Ater really wanted many jars with dragon blood, as it’s used for writing scrolls and spell books.
Celthor also wanted to learn how the ice hunters cloths worked, materials etc, so he could make his own to survive better in cold climates. Ulfnaar on the other hand had his Captains Vigil helmet on, and though a thing tunic would be perfect.Ulfnaar also focused on the ship, but he also wanted to get those lovely coins out from the ice.
On the ship was a huge chest, and Ulfnaar called for the chest expert Merisiel, who danced aboard the ship, when she carefully examined the chest for traps, hearing her heart pounding in her chest, she was quite surprised when she heard another sound, a soft beathring from the chest, the seconds before the mimic attacked her. She quite quickly took care of the beast, before Ulfnaar or Kelda had a chance to help her.
The mimic dead, all the gems and jewellery it had used to disguise itself as an expensive loot filled chest now lay all over the ship, but was quickly collected and counted and added to Ater’s bookkeeping records. Ater loves all books, even those only holding numbers on the pages. Some books he do now really show others, but Ulfnaar has heard him whisper about a book bound in human skin.
Celthor keeps checking if he can create an armour from the dragon’s skin, so much to do, and the group will have to leave this strange island in the sea of moving ice. Where will they head? Cho is just across the northern passage, or will they return to Luskan for provisions and supplies first? No one knows now, but we will soon know, and the adventures of Ulfnaar and his friends continues...
A quick note on how the dragon was actually killed.
The brave Jade Wardens soften him up with all they had, but the final blow was, as usual, delivered by the always extremely resourceful Ater.
He used Bigby's Grasping Hand spell, grabbed the dragon by the throat, then slammed him over and over into walls and floors. Once again he used a non combat spell as a weapon, hats off for the greatest wizard in our time.
MacCath invites us to her tent, and she tells the group that Arauthator had a mate, who flies around with a dead wizard on her back. She has become more and more unstable and Arauthator planned to replace the dead wizard on his mates back with MacCath. She also tells the group that this is just one of his lairs, and not the richest one.
Ater also learns that the Draconis Fundamentalis, the core organ in the dragon, can be taken out and used for many potent magic formulas. Celthor, who is the most skilled hunter of us all, who have gutted many animals, does the actual work, aided by Ater. Carefully they cut it out and places it in a barrel that is then stored in Aters bag of holding.
The group also found a strange black piece of cloth, that could be unfold into a 6 feet in diameter round piece of cloth, and it opened a hole to a secret dimension, where the group found the mummified body of a druid, that had a very fine staff, with green vines growing around an emerald at the end. Linnaril sees what it is, a rare Druidic artefact, the Staff of the Woodlands, Linnaril is of course given the staff. Kelda, who has been very different since she was untied from the bond with the evil sword, wanted the portable hole, to use as a smuggler's hole when when she one day would get her own ship. She wore it as a bandana.
After some more negotiations with the ice hunters, the group got help to dismount and mount the Night Wind to carry it out in pieces from the cave. Linnaril used woodland magic to bend and shape wood, so the was no need to let the ship lay in water for a week for the wood to shape itself and didn’t have to pick moss to put in the gaps, the ship came out as new. Ulfnaar worked with the ice hunters, he got quite interested in learning the craft of carpentry, he saw that it would come handy.
The group travelled back to Luskan, with the Night Wind as the largest jolly boat every seen, tugged after out flying ship that Kelda, Ulfnaar and Ulf Gudmundr kept just about the water surface.
During the journey back MacCath told Ater that six months ago, purple dressed dragon cultists came to Oyaviggaton and negotiated with Arauthator to get the Drakhorn. Blowing the horn will make anyone within several miles to feel sick. Somehow the dragon cultists have used magic to make it even more powerful.
The group loaded MacCaths extensive library and collection of artefacts that Arauthator stole from the Hoth tower fifty years ago. To transport all that on the ship, Ater had to convince Kelda to borrow her bandana, and Kelda was not very happy to agree, but backed down in the end. The group also found five beads of force, and Ater decided Ameiko should have three and Ulfnaar two, as they did not have any good crowd control spells or items.
Back in Luskan, the ships were anchored in the port. Ater stood in the bow of the ship, holding Arauthator with a bigby’s hand spell, showing the whole town that the old white death was now history.
First, the group took MacCath and her items back to the Hoth tower. Ater also brought with him the saved dragon parts, the Draconis Fundamentalis, the hide, the leather from the wings, a barrel of blood.
The group spent two weeks in Luskan, doing different things. The group decided to use parts from Night Wind to rebuild our flying ship to be bigger, it was crowded on the way to Luskan. To help the group with that task, Ameiko and Ater negotiated with the most powerful business in Luskan, the ship Kurth. Ulfnaar worked with the ship builders from Kurths to rebuild the ship, add wings to it, enlarge the balloon. So much work and Ulfnaar felt he really started to understand carpentry and got himself his own set of tools.
Celthor and Linnaril went to the best leatherworker in Luskan, an old Sho woman from Karatour, and they made a dragonhide leather armour for Celthor and a dragon scale mail for Linnaril. Ater works with the wizards of the Hoth tower to make different things with the dragon remains, like potions.
Between work and research, the Jade Wardens, mostly represented by Ater and Ameiko, had several meetings with the Captain’s Court of Luskan and the Arcane Brotherhood of the Hoth Tower to try to persuade them to join the Lords Alliance in the upcoming war against the dragon cult, but neither the Captain’s Court nor the Arcane Brotherhood of the Hoth Tower saw any reason to get involved the the hostilities as the dragon cultists had not been a problem for Luskan, and now when the old white death was dead, the biggest threat to the merchant ships that traded with Karatour was gone. Kelda went to upgrade her armour and get new look, she was quite different after the curse from the sword had been lifted from her.
The group made the One Eyes Jax it’s base and in the evening, after everyone had been doing whatever they where doing, they met up there, chatted a little with Zardo Zord and Alba, Ater long lost cousin who ran the place. One evening a stranger walk up to Ulfnaar who sat at a table having a dwarven mead. Kelda was just coming, she was just waiting for Alba to fill her glass.
The stranger, looked like a southerner from the Sword Coast, asked Ulfnaar if it was true that he and his friends really killed the old white death. Ulfnaar was talking when Kelda came and her feral instincts got a bad feelings about the man. She jumped on him and threw him on the ground, but the guards grabbed Kelda and tossed her out shouting that “This is unacceptable behavior at the One Eyed Jax”. The man dusted of his clothes and excuse himself and went away. Ulfnaar was quite confused by the whole episode.
Well outside, Kelda sees a man, the same man, climbing out through a window and onto the roof of the One Eyes Jax. He had something in his hand that he pointed to the sky, and a big ball of fire exploded in the sky. Kelda rushed up along the wall and over the roof and threw the man down from the rooftop, down onto the pavements below, and heard the distinctive sound of breaking bones.
Meanwhile, Ater looked out the window, and suddenly saw a sight he saw a long time ago, in the swamps outside a castle, a young girl with black hair. She pointed at Ater, pointed into the sky, then Ater saw the falling man, and when the man had passed the window, the girl was gone. Ater instantly used his misty set and was outside the One Eyes Jacks, looked up, and saw five dragons approaching fast.
In that exact moment, several people in One Eyes Jax, draw knives and swords and attached the Jade Wardens. Ameiko tossed a bead of force on two of the attackers, and suddenly they were inside a huge balloon of force, unable to do any harm, or be harmed. Ameiko dashed to a green half dragon 20 feet from their table and attacked it. Ulfnaar send the balloon up to the ceiling as it only weighted a pond, no matter what was inside it, and also attacked the green half dragon. Kelda jumped down of the stranger on the ground, and that was the final blow to make him unconscious.
A red dragon breathes fire on Ater and Kelda, and Ater fell to the ground, While another red dragon landed on the roof of the One Eyed Jacks and started to breath fire through the roof. 30 patrons tried to run to the back door, behind the bar, but it did not open, it had been locked. Linnaril jumped out through the window to heal Ater, while Kelda attacked the dragon in frenzy. Outside Ulfnaar and Ameiko ran into a red half dragon and a group of dragon wings cultists. The dragon on the roof started to move down into the bar, burning everything and everyone to ashes. The other dragon was severely damaged by Kelda, Celthor, Ater and Linnaril and decided to escape to safety. Celthor fired arrow after arrow after arrow on the fleeing dragon, until it fell from the sky just before it was reaching the maximum range of Cethors bow. The other dragon climbed up on the roof on the other wing of the building, frightful breathing fire.
Meanwhile, Kelda charges the second group of dragon wings that was keeping Ameiko and Ulfnaar busy and brutally cut then down with her sword and her shield. Ulfnaar rushed in the direction of the dragon on the roof. He had taken a magic potion that would protect him at least somewhat from the firestorm to come. But, Ulfnaar has seen firsthand how effective the bead thrown by Ameiko was, so the throw one bead at the Dragon, and Ater used his Portent Magic to make the Dragon fail to resist the magic of the bead. The surprised look of the dragon, now completely inside a sphere of utter magic, unable to flee or fight, fell down from the roof like huge beach ball.
Question: how did you do Garnek the dwarf? (what assets?)
A horrible Kitbash, I can see if I can figure out what I used.
G8M
Bolhmar For G8M
20% Old Shap Head
42% Vladimir Head
Orleans Armor
Santa Beard
Stylish Beard
Bolmar Brows
Balach Helmet (M3 Item)
I think that is all
Ater then ran into the building as he knew Alba was there somewhere and no one had exited through the back door.
Ah loud cry in agony is heard from the flame engulfed commons room. “Alba! Noooooooo!”. From the flames Ater came out with the burnt body of Alba.
Suddenly several gates of teleportation opened and wizards from the Arcane Brotherhood at the Hoth Tower arrived, and when the magic sphere around the red dragon disappeared, it was all over before it had a chance to do anymore harm.
There are no powerful priests in Luskan, and Alba would have to be taken to one really quick, or she would be lost forever. Linnaril offered to reincarnate Alba, and Ater accepted, knowing the result can be somewhat random. The took a short rest and Linnaril bought some expensive scented oils. Then they group went out in the woods to a small glen, where candles were lit, and Alba’s body put into a cocoon of leaves stuck together with scented oils. Linnaril began to pray, move his staff around, and he asked Alba’s spirit if it wanted to return to life in a new body, the answer way yes, and the cocoon began to crack, like a hatching egg, and eldritch lights came out through the cracks. Suddenly, a young silver dragonborn was standing there in front of them. Ater quickly gave her a rob to cover herself with and Alba was grateful for have been brought back to life, even though not in the body she lived in before.
The aftermath of the attack was horrible. Over thirty people had died in the fire of the totally burnt down inn. many others had fallen as dragons and cultists had attacked several places in the city, but when the dragons were killed by the Jade Wardens, the rest had fled, which had saved many lives.
The day after, a council with the Arcane Brotherhood and the Captain’s Court was held and they now decided to join the alliance and support the other Sword Coast cities in the upcoming war against the dragon cult. The rest of they day was hard work, burying the dead, taking care of the ones who had lost a husband or a wife, a daughter or a son, a father or a mother. It was a sad day, but Luskans were northmen, proud warriors, so they did not fall into despair, they rather started to prepare themselves for the war to come. The dragon cult just had awakened a powerful enemy. And that is not all, the Jade Wardens had now become an even more powerful group.
The next morning, Linnaril is awakened by Skygnie, she sent her telepathic messages, someone is coming, and barked. She is a very good guard dog and a really good companion to the Jade Wardens. It was an old friend of Linnaril, he had a message..
Alagathas, one of the sons of the Elven King Melandrach, and old friend of Linnaril needs the help of the Jade Wardens. Has is secretly working with the Emerald Enclave, without King Melandrach’s knowledge or approval, to protect the Misty Forest. The elves, or King Melandrach really, has decided that the elves can handle their own problems, and they do not need any aid from anyone, and will not give any aid to anyone.
Several attacks by dragon cultists have occured, and several villages have been sacked and burnt down, except one village, where only slight damage happened. We are asked to fly down to the village, Altand, and investigate what happened, if they have found some great way to fend of the attackers, or it if is something else.
The group fly down in our new and improved ship, the mix between Dragonfly and Night Wind, which name is still under debate. Kelda who declared herself Captain, hired Ulf Gudmundr as her first mate.
The time to go to the Misty Forest from Luskan, Ater calculates the time to 3 days and 3 hours of we keep flying around the clock, having a three shift on the bridge. Ulfnaar, Kelda and Ulf Gudmundr take turns at the wheel on 4 glass shifts.
When the group come closer to Altand, the dense forest and the fog makes it impossible to navigate, so we tie the flying ship in huge oak tree and disembark. Merisiel feeling down, so she stays with Ulf Gudmundr and watch the ship, the rest, including Skygnie starts to walk. Linnaril uses his Staff of the Woodlands and the group is surrounded by even denser mist, so the group is almost impossible to see, and leave no traces. Linnaril talks with some plants and trees to see if the group is heading in the right direction. Celthor runs around scouting, and suddenly he faces an elf with a bow, saying state your business, the he sees a second elf in a tree. He says we’re come to help, and the rest of his group. The elf looks confused, which group, then suddenly Kelda steps out from the mist could, trying to stare down the elf woman, saying this group.
After a short walk, the group reaches Altand, and finds out that the village cleric, died defending the village, and the village warden, who now lead the village. After talking with lot of villagers, both elves and men, what happened began to come clear. The dragon, a large green dragon, had a rider on it’s back. Most said it was a human, but a few said that he moved with the grace of an elf.
The warden, now living in the clerics old house, with his raven, says he have no idea why the attack ended and only a few houses were damaged and nothing was plundered. Celthor can see dragon footprints, and they size confirms it’s a dragon about the same size as The Old White Death. Celthors sets up a watch, to see if anyone behaves strange during the night, and in the middle of the night, the Warden suddenly leaves the village together with the raven. Celthor sneaks out and follows him, and he stops in a glen, and sits for about an hour before he leaves again.
Celthor checks the glen, lot’s of dragon footprints. He takes another route back, wakes up the group and the Jade Wardens went to confront the warden with this evidence. The Warden breaks down fast under the pressure from Linnaril and the rest of the group, and he tells what really happened. The rider on the dragon is an elven lord with black hair. He cries that he has committed treason against his own people, he was offered to have his life spared if he went to that spot every night to be prepared to meet the dragon and give him information about other villages. The dragon has not come for several days now. The dragon and the rider was always wet when they came. The group took the warden to the rest of the villages. As Linnaril outranked anyone else in the village according to elven hierarchy, he chose a new warden, and older, wise and trustworthy man. The old warden’s fate is now in the hand of his own people.
Aler and Linnaril quickly discussed and came to the conclusion the dragon must live in a river or lake close by, as they would be dry if they fly more than an hour. Celthor used his powers and felt that a dragon is somewhere within six miles, but he only know that, not any direction. As there is stream not far away, the group headed of in that direction. Linnaril cast protection from poison on some of the members, and Ulfnaar got a potion of stone giant strength to use just in case.
Suddenly, there is a sound of a falling tree, and a woman, with a gnomish accent, screams for help. Ameiko, who was first in the line, ran forward and saw an old gnomish lady under a tree. She used all her strength to lift the tree to free the woman, and when the tree came up a little bit, it stood up by its own force. The woman, having strange flowers in her hair, took a flower from her hair, that Ameiko was sure was not there before, and then spun a whole lei from it and put it around Ameiko’s neck saying thank you. The rest of the group catches up, and everyone is given a lei, then the little gnome lady walks away, with an owl on her shoulder, and the fallen tree that now stands up, and some other trees, walks away with her. The Jade Wardens looked at each other, that was a very strange experience. Ater detects that the leis are magical. Linnaril says that she was a druid, a quite eccentric druid though.
The group moved further into the forest. There was a slow change of fauna and flora, and it’s getting colder. Suddenly there is a lot of webs, spiders are imminent, a good sign we are close to a green dragon nest, as poison is drawn to poison. The spiders attacks and the Jade Wardens do what they do very good, take care of monsters and enemies. Even Skygnie joins in, using her cold breath to freeze spiders. Ulfnaar, as usual, get a web tossed over him and is trapped, but breaking free was easy this time.
The group continues through the thick vegetation, so think it’s almost impossible to see more than a few yards ahead. Suddenly they hear the sound of falling water, and they arrive to a pool of water with a waterfall in the far end, coming down from a high rock side. Linnaril asks a plant if a dragon has been here, and the plant telepathically sends him feelings of a frightful beast. Ameiko scouts ahead and in behind the waterfall, there is a dark tunnel.
The group, tightly around Linnaril to be in his cover, moved into the dark corridor. Ulfnaar tries to stay as far away as possible as sneaking in a armour is rather difficult. They saw a large cave, with a lake and a small island in the lake. The water in the lake was faint greenish, almost lit. A faint light is seen from a ledge about 25 feet from the ground, and some noise, voices is heard from a narrow corridor to the left. Ameiko sneaks in and sees three Ettins, two headed giants, who are arguing over something, all six head are arguing. She the climbs up to the ledge, a group of elves stands there, and after some tension, they agree to be rescued. They had been kidnapped from different villages. Linnaril guided them out, took him three runs to get all eleven elves out. There was a statue, covered with drippings from the stalactites, in the corner of the ledge, and Ater began to clean it. Suddenly he felt a warm feeling in his chest, and an itch behind his ears. It was a statue of the elven goddess of waterfalls, and she thanked Ater by giving him gills. There was also a door, which the elves said led down to the room where the Ettins were.
Now, Kelda got an idea. She picked up the largest gem, not the most valuable gem, she had and gave it to Ater, who cast some spells on it to make it extra sparkling and even glowing with a faint light. Now the group split into two, and moved in position, then Ater used levitate and then let the gem suddenly appear between the three Ettins, and the arguing rose to a new level. Then the group attacked from two ways, and the Ettins didn’t even have a chance to fight back. Ulfnaar saw that one of the Ettins had a very nice belt, much nicer than the other two. He took it off from the Ettin and looked closely at it, and Ater said “Ulfnaar don’t put it on…” but too late, Ulfnaar put it on, and it felt good. Ater had seen that it as magical, and after some examination, it was a belt of stone giant strength, but Ulfnaar did not have time to attune to it, to be able to use its magic powers.
Linnaril decided to sneak away to some caves where the elves said the cultists and the elven lord stayed. He used his staff and Amieko cast invisibility on him too. The dragon was still nowhere to be seen. Linnaril passes two caves, one filled with bedrolls, and another where a group of cultists where playing cards, but when he continued, he stepped on a trap, a glyph of warding, and was attacked by acid. He kept his cool and quickly moved back when he saw the face of who was the elven lord. It was no one other that the first son of the elven King Melandrach, the brother of Linnaril’s friend Alagathas. They played as kids and were best friends all three, but he was changed, and the worst thing of all, he has been declared dead for many years. The lost son of King Melandrach, Neronvain, was found.
Linnaril cast a wall of thorn on the dragon cultists and the half dragon and then wild shaped into a clay golem, and walked straight into the solid stone and disappeared.
The sounded alarm altered the rest of the group and Kelda and Ameiko rushed toward the tunnel opening that Linnaril had entered and out through the opening came a group of dragon cultists. Kelda was quite surprised when a large clay golem came out from the wal right beside her, and started to attack, the cultists. Suddenly a mighty roar was heard, and a dragon came up through the water, with the elven lord on his back.
The usual chaos of battle emerged. Celthor and Ater was attacked by a poison spell, and Celthor did not take it good and was poisoned. Ater cast a spell but the dragon dodged it. Ameiko and Ulfnaar cast their last beads, but they did not work, but they wore down the dragons magic defence, then Ulfnaar rushed to Celthor to give him lay on hands to cure him from the poison. The attacks on both the dragon and the elven lord continued from all directions, and suddenly the dragon seems to have had enough and decided to flee. Now, he would have escaped, he would have lived, if it wasn’t for Ater Dragonsbane. Ater was hidden in a corner, and cast a wall of force, an invisible wall of pure force, that covered the cave opening that the dragon tried to reach at full speed. The collision was brutal, the sound of the dragon’s neck beings shattered echoed in the cave. Neronvain continued his ride, in the air, for a split second before his body slammed into the invisible wall, and he bounced back like a ragdoll, landing just a few feet from Ameiko. She raised her sword Suishen and cut Neronvain’s throat wide open with one precise cut. Green flames erupted from both the sword and Ameiko, and she had a quickening experience, she felt the sword becoming even more powerful.
Linnaril transformed back from his clay golem shape, looked at his dead childhood friend, and said, as elves usually do: - “That was the easy way, and probably the best way”.
The group took a short rest, to heal wounds, before starting to explore the rest of this stronghold. Ulfnaar decided to look through the barracks, as he now was incredible strong as he had finally attuned to his belt. He found a letter, a children drawing of a man in purple Dragon Cultist outfit, and the text “Best dad in the world”. For a second, Ulfnaar felt sorry, he understood that even those evil cultists, had wives and kids at home, that would forever wonder what happened to their fathers or husbands.
The expedition goes on passing a well stocked food storage, and then the private chamber of Neronvain, a lush room with tapestries on the walls, carpets and a very nice bed, and a large mirror. While the others looked for things, Ulfnaar posed in front of the mirror, he liked his new massive muscles.
The group collected the nice elven tapestries and Ulfnaar packed down the bed, as he liked it, specially the very good carpenter work.
They found a hidden door behind one of the tapestries leading to a private study with a desk and a shrine. Linnaril found a journal, sad readings. They found notes in the journal that all the treasure had been moved for transport to the Well of Dragons, just a few days ago. Ulfnaar found another hidden door behind the shrine. They knew there had to be one, as Linnaril said Neronvain was in his room, then came out on the dragon on the other side. The huge room smelled of dirt and herbs. They found a huge bird nest, dragon size, built from plants and branches. The nest contained over 8000 pieces of copper, a very heavy burden for 80 pieces of gold. This is where the treasure had been stored.
First Ameiko and Ulfnaar cut of the wings of the dead dragon and stored them in Keldas portable hole. Then Ater and Celthor cut the Draconis Fundamentalis out of the Dragon, that had been bearing the name Curth. Then Ater used disintegrate to remove the rest of the dragon to prevent anyone from resurrecting it, and he put the sand that was the remains of it, in a bag. He said “This will be good to have if we need to show the cultists what happens to dragons”.
The group came back top the village, and learned that the village had elected Immiare, an elven woman and expert scout, as the new Warden of the village. Linnaril contacted his childhood friend, Prince Alagathas to tell him what have happened, and the group were invited to an audience with the Elven King, KIng Melandrach. The villagers gave the group some very nice elven clothes as a gesture of gratitude.
The Jade Wardens took the ship to the location of the elven city, and flying over the misty forest, they saw shapes in the lower mist. Eight large falcons with elven honor guard riders flew escort the last miles to the elven city, and the group landed in a glenn, under the mist. The now had their finest clothes on, as this was a visit to a Royal Court, and not any royal court, but the Elven Royal Court.
The group were met by Prince Alagathas and Delaan Winterhound, head of the Emerald enclave. They were led to a large staircase leading up the trees. Ater didn’t wanna walk, so he cast levitate, but it failed, and the elves smiled at him, and he had to walk anyway. The Elven city is protected from the simple magic of the mere mortals.
The Jade Wardens came into a huge chamber, with coloured glass windows, and the beams in the ceiling looked like they were branches that had grown in place. The room was also magically lit, which gave it an almost dreamlike appearance.
At the end of the great hall was a throne, growing out of the wall, and on it was King Melandrach seated. Ulfnaar was carrying the body of his dead son, wrapped in the finest elven cloth. He greeted the group in Elvish, and Ulfnaar didn’t understand a thing. Linnaril told him the story, and then Linnaril waved to Ulfnaar to carry the body forward to the KIng. After the King had recieved the body of his dead son, Ater gave King Melandrach the journal of Neronvain. During silence the kind skimmed the journal. When he put it down, there was no reaction in his face, but his voice was full of anger. He said that this was too much, the Elves will now join the allies of the Waterdeep council to combat the Dragon Cultists.
Then King Melandrach stood up, and everyone in the room kneeled. He turned directly to Linnaril, and said: – “Linnaril, when you were young, you played with my sons. You were like an extra son in the family. I know my wife took care of everything and I wish I had done more, and been there more. Now, I take you as my own son, into my family, raise Prince Linnaril.”
Linnaril was shocked by the kings word, it was hard to really take it all in. He hugged his best friend, Prince Alagathas, and Prince Alagathas replied, welcome to the family brother.
During the next few days, there were first a funeral for Prince Neronvain, then a feast for Prince Linnaril. Ameiko did drink a little too much of the wine and she told maybe a little too much of her true story to her elven hosts. Ater suspected that the wine contained something that made her extra talkative. Even though the Elves are friends of men, and now allies with the Lords Alliance of the Sword Coast, the Elves are always trying to learn the secrets of the world.
F.Y.I The story of Ulfnaar will take a break (our GM is moving and need all his free time to concentrate on that and not preparing super fantastic adventures for the Jade Wardens. It will be back once he has settled in.)
But don't fear, I think there will soon popup a new storyline in a completely different universe (in a galaxy far far away), hint hint.
I will post the link here, when the story about Damon Finn, intergalactic smuggler, and his friends will see light of day. Stay tuned.
We will take off a campaign in StarWars - Edge Of The Empire, to be ran by the player who plays Linnaril in the Ulfnaar story.
For those who want to follow the adventures of Damon Finn in the StarWars universe: Click here.
Fantastic work!
I like fantasy stories and have played d&d pc games. I didn't even notice there's a place for 3d art works in this forum. It will takes some time for me to go through your work for years. There must be many things I can learn from.
What? Neverwinter is destroyed? It's my most familiar place in Faerun.
Yes - it was, according to the legends , and rebuilt again.