My evening was pleasant enough.. relaxing at an Inn in Shadowfell, a small town I was passing through with Kargin, my scaley traveling companion. Due to a mutual interest, mostly the fact that Kargin and him were the only Dragonkin in the entire town, we ended up sharing a table with Banaar and another newcomer to town, an elven Ranger named Aurin.
While chatting, we overhear a conversation of interest. Mostly of interest because it hints to the fact there is money involved, something I am forever fond of, as is Kargin. Being a Warlock my… powers… are cheap. At least on the pocket they are, not like my Wizard brethren and their range of materials and studying needed. It does come at a different price though, ones sanity is forever on the very edge. I however, will gladly trade a stable, and dull, mind for the vast cosmic knowledge I have witnessed. However I digress…
It would appear that a merchant has lost a large portion of his caravan to some kobolds. The poor fool thinks his guards let him down, somehow thinking an entire caravan could be protected by 3 underpaid men. His most prized possession, a pristine piece of green dragon hide, was taken along with several other items. This sounded like a golden opportunity, and we offered our assistance.
We quickly learned this man was a sneaky one, having already shafted the guards on payment, and through the assistance of the towns Burgermeister we worked up some binding contracts to ensure payment of 200g apiece to each of our group, as well as the Guard Captain and his remaining man, to retrieve said items from the Kobolds. We set off the following morning in search of the abandoned manor estate they had taken up residence in, and along the way were set upon by a band of them along the road in an attempted ambush. We made short work of them, although I must admit I had begun to have new found doubts about our Cleric, as he rushed headlong into battle, and straight into a mud pit trap.
This, children, is why you send the meat shields first, and why I, your ever wise Harbinger of Dark Energy, bring along a 7 foot tall dragonblooded Warlord to wade into the front lines of battle. Kargin and I have a most amicable working relationship, he wades into the fray and sends bodies flying, and I weaken their pitiful minds from within to make them easy prey for him.
We made short work of the ambush party, and the poor fool left still alive we questioned for info. It would appear a kobold dragon cult had taken up residence in the ruins of the manor, under the leadership of a kobold Dragon Priest, whom we gathered may very well be working under and with a White Dragon. We were not able to find out for sure if the Dragon was present or not, but we presumed he was, for our own well being.
Once to the manor things were rather quiet. Outside the ruins we found 2 of the horses still alive, and one functioning cart. The remains of the other horses were nearby, obviously having become dinner. A quick survey revealed there was a path leading under the foundation, which opened up through a chamber into old ruins of some kinda of burial chambers for an ancient temple. Working our way through the temple we dispatched any of the kobolds in our way, having a few close calls to some rather annoying, and dangerous, Drakes. Both the Guard and the Guard captain proved not worthy of the trip, and sadly did not make it though with us. However in a hidden chamber we did find and free yet another Dragonborn named Sargoth (Quite frankly I am not thrilled with this many noble minded fools traveling with me) who signed up his fighting skills to join us for some revenge. Finally we found our quarry, the Priest, and dispatched him. Sadly however what we did not find was the dragon skin, or any of the missing items actually. With a small inspection of the last chamber though we did find a secret passage leading down into a natural cave, that was cool and wet. Being ever prudent, and knowing the possibility of a Dragon was there, we decided to use a side room we found and setup a quiet camp and post watch.
Sometime during our rest a band of Kobolds stumbled across us, they had us at quite a disadvantage, but lets face it, we were better than them, plain and simple. We noticed afterwards that their armor, if you could call it that, was far different than their brethren, these bearing the symbol of the dark god Tiamat. The supposed leader of the group was bearing a scroll, written in draconic, which was apparently a letter from their master to the resident below us. It read the following.
To Szatharrax,
Sixth egg of my mother. I am pleased with your progress organizing the kobolds in your assigned territory. I will convey your success with this new chapter of the faithful to mother.
Our siblings, Kelenth and Sylyrriva have also succeeded in subverting tribes of their own. I have had no report as of yet from the others.
Progress here in the temple is proceeding apace. The ruins hid a surprisingly well-preserved complex underground which the local tribe has managed to put to use. Most of it is too cramped for me, but I have managed to break open a passage between a natural cavern and the rear chamber.
The subterranean temple previously venerated Terog, but these locals are true believers and have imbued these halls with the spirit of Our Queen. If our work and success continues we should have a sufficient army within the year and the humans will be outs for the taking.
By the claws of Our Queen and the colors of her scales…
Nevellere
This proved most interesting, there was obviously far more afoot than originally suspected. Obviously now we knew what to expect below, and headed down, as prepared as well as we could be, really.
We emerged into a cold, chilled room with two large pillars holding up the cavern, and a cold pool of water. Before we had much time to get our bearings straight, out of the darkness to our left a large, white reptilian shape began charging our way. With no time at all to think, I did the first thing that came to mind in an attempt to save our skin.
“Hail, great Szatharrax!” I yelled, much to my companions, and my own, amazement.
The creature hesitated and glared at me, and taking a moment to bow I looked back at him, with feigned reverence.
“I bring you a message from our master Nevellere” and held out the scroll, and walked towards the creature.
In my mind my plan was simple, put it off guard, buy us some time, and hope that when the time is right, and not too late, we can make short work of the fairly small, and lesser powered draconic monster. However as it took the scroll from me and asked “And I am to assume YOU are the chosen messenger?!?” and commanded me to hold fast there within range of its giant claws, and chilling breath, I realized this might not be going quite according to plan.
At the time I was quite upset by the next turn of events, but in hindsight, it was the right thing to do, our window of opportunity was as open as it was ever going to get, and was fast closing. Our new found friend, the fighter Sargoth, charged forward with a battle cry and laid a heavy blow on the creature. Soon Banaar and Kargin had joined along aside, and the 4 of us were now engaged with the creature at a range that was far too close for my liking. I finally made my way to the back, near the ranger, but at great cost to my health and well being, and with perseverance we were able to drop the beast finally. We found its cache, and recovered the missing items, and returned to town, triumphant, albeit tired.
We were in for a world of surprises when we returned, the Burgermeister is not all he seems. When we arrived in town, some children playing on the outskirts spotted us on the road, and ran ahead to tell of our arrival. By time we reached the center of town, he was waiting for us. We filled him in on our discoveries, and concluded our business with the Merchant when he arrived shortly thereafter. We then joined the Burgermeister at his house at his behest to discuss further issues with him. We learned several things. Most importantly, the location of this ruined temple described in the letter is apparently a 3 weeks travel by foot away from us. However we would not be walking there the hard way, fortunately. Bengin, as we learned his name to be, has a father who lives with him who joined us in the common room. He is an ancient man, but one of my knowledge could feel the raw power emanating from him. As he was one of the Wizard family I am unfamiliar with the nuances of his powers, but I could feel the raw energy and appreciate its depth none the less. Baelyn was his name, and before settling down in this small town, he hailed from the port city of Coragon, a half weeks travel from the temple ruins. Coragon housed a fairly sizable Mages Academy, to which he had a direct portal link, hidden in his barn. He was going to escort us to town, as the portal emptied into the academy proper, not some place for our kind to just randomly drop in unannounced.
We made our goodbyes, and traveled with Baelyn, arriving in the academy and met with the headmaster, Saren. We did not ask questions, but it appeared that Baelyn carried much respect in this place, and I feel there might be far more to this story than we know. Saren assisted us with a young boy by the name of Tick who lead us around town to the Market, where we unloaded ourselves of the hide of Szatharrax as well as some of his other loot, for a tidy sum that we in turn used for some new equipment, and a splendid set of bracers for myself that have affected my powers greatly, I might add.
We then made our way to an Inn by the docks named the Salted Fish, where we met with a woman by the name of Gwendian, whom Saren referred us to. She has been kind enough to rent us the entire third floor of the establishment, which is a full sized 4 room apartment, for 20g a month. It looks like we will be calling this place home for a while, and have established ourselves with a base of operations, so to speak. We have not discussed our next steps yet, but I for one would like to be prudent. It is clear this temple houses not just another dragon, but one who seems to be commanding the actions of the other remaining 4, possibly more. Before we go marching into his place, I feel it would be wiser to seek out the other, lesser ones, and learn what we can, as well as try to make equally short work of them as we did they younger sibling. In the meantime I plan to work on my skills at bluffing a dragon, they obviously need some work…