3 Fierdos 1120

The Dragon's Tomb

The party camped overnight with the druid Rasmus in his grove at the edge of the woods. Somewhere in those woods Orin Bronshelm roamed as a newly-converted weretiger, but finding him in the darkness was out of the question.

At dawn the group packed their gear and prepared to search for Orin. Rasmus offered to conduct them to the nearby village of Gross Fell. Once Orin returned to human form that would be the most likely place for him to seek help, the druid suggested, so it would be a good place to start.

They set off for Gross Fell at a good pace and reached the village walls in the late morning. The gate guards were wary of the group until they saw Rasmus. With his assurance that the strangers were trustworthy, the guards relaxed and answered questions readily.

Yes, they told the party, a man had shown up at the gate just after dawn seeking help. He was naked, bruised, and could not account for his condition; in short, everything the villagers of Gross Fell had come to expect from someone who had unknowingly become a lycanthrope. Such petitioners were a common occurance in the Moonlands, so the guards had given the standard response: a cloak, a small package of food and water, and directions to the nearest mission of Pelor.

Rasmus knew the place; it was about a half-day's travel through the wood. When the party moved to follow, however, the guards asked Rasmus if he and his friends would please first pay a call on Arrak, the sheriff of Gross Fell. Seeing no reason to object, the group followed a guard to the sheriff's office.

Arrak had clearly heard of the party's presence already. He sized them up quickly and came right to the point. A black dragon had recently moved into the area, he explained, and was terrorizing the farmers and shepherds that call Gross Fell their home. As bad as that was, however, the townspeople feared worse: the dragon's flight pattern suggested that its lair was in the hills north of the town -- hills that also held the long-sealed tomb of Elizar Branded-Hand, an evil (or perhaps just insane) wizard who had brought death and destruction to Gross Fell some 300 years ago and had been buried alive in a tomb in the hills. The locals feared that the dragon might unwittingly, or perhaps deliberately, unseal the tomb and release an untold evil on the village.

The proposition was simple: if the party would find the dragon and either destroy it or drive it away, Arrak would send a group of woodsmen to find Orin, ensure that he got to the mission of Pelor and was cured, then bring him back to Gross Fell.

The party agreed. Knowing the general nature of black dragons, they invited Rasmus to accompany them on the mission. They set out immediately for the northern hills about 10 miles outside town.

The trip went smoothly. They followed the course of a running stream until it disappeared into the hillside, then continued a little further to the base of the suspected lair. As Arrak had feared, the stone slab that had covered the tomb entrance lay in pieces on the ground, apparently bashed apart from inside the tunnel it had covered.

The group entered the tunnel and worked their way down into the natural cavern that formed the first chamber of the tomb. The smell of rotting meat and various molds grew stronger as they descended and the sound of running water became clearly audible.

Inside the large cavern the party found a set of clearly man-made walls forming an inner room. The iron doors to that room were broken down and had been stacked in a corner. A half-eaten sheep's carcass lay by the edge of a fast-moving stream that covered the back section of the cave. As the party began to fan out to explore the area, the dragon's head popped out of the water. The mouth opened and an 80-foot line of acid spewed forth catching Loki, Karu, and Rasmus in its path. Vondran threw the Arm of Telomir and drew blood from the dragon, but the beast withdrew under the rushing water and disappeared.

Tika and Rasmus cast resist energy (acid) on themselves and Loki readied his mind blade in two-bladed sword shape. Ash cast mage armor for a little extra protection and took a peek into the inner room, which was clearly the dragon's lair. She spied the iron doors arranged in a lean-to shape and clearly concealing something but there was no time to investigate further just then. She looked around the far corner in time to see the dragon emerge from the water.

Ash called out a warning to her friends, which brought Loki and Rasmus to her side while Tika readied her crossbow to join them. The dragon grinned and spat another long stream of acid that covered Ash, Loki and Rasmus. Ash collapsed on the floor and lay still.

Vondran thought to copy the dragon's tactic and catch him from behind. He quickly found that the stream's current was stronger than it seemed from the edge, though, and climbed back out of the water to avoid being swept downstream and back toward Gross Fell. Meanwhile, Tika scored a hit with her crossbow but was dismayed to find that it did little damage to the dragon. Remembering that Vondran's harpoon was silver, she cast silver weapon on a batch of bolts and reloaded.

Karu and Loki put themselves between Ash and the dragon to provide some cover while Rasmus dragged Ash a safe distance away and cast cure moderate wounds on the sorceress. He took a bite from the dragon in the process but remained standing. Once on her feet again Ash paid back the dragon with a scorching ray that proved effective. Tika also hit with a silvered crossbow bolt and found that it was no more effective than the normal bolt. From this she deduced that she needed a magic weapon and applied the magic weapon spell to her crossbow.

The dragon showed no reluctance to engage in close-quarters fighting. It bit Loki hard enough to send him in search of healing from Rasmus. Vondran moved in to take his place but missed with his first harpoon throw.

Karu used his ki power to become invisible and tried to sneak around to the dragon's flank but the beast, who had blindsense, mocked him by following the ninja's movement the entire way. Loki charged in with a psychic strike at the ready only to be knocked over with a powerful blow from the dragon's wing. It took a hit from Vondran's harpoon and Tika's crossbow, then took a short leap to position itself for another blast from its acid breath weapon. This time Vondran, Karu and Rasmus were caught in the line. Vondran managed to duck out of the way but Karu and Rasmus took the full blast.

Vondran continued to draw blood with the Arm of Telomir while Tika cast mass conviction to boost the party's resistance to the dragon's breath. It continued to beat the group up in melee with its teeth and tail slap. Rasmus, gravely wounded and out of cure spells, rushed the dragon and attacked with a healing sting that harmed it while healing himself and the rest of the group moved in for a final flurry of attacks.

The dragon sidestepped and managed to line up Tika, Loki, Rasmus and Vondran for one more acid breath attack, but it would be his last hurrah. Vondran, Karu, and Rasmus all landed blows with their magic weapons and the beast was slain.

A search of the dragon's lair revealed a quantity of precious coin, a +2 mithral shirt, and two interesting weapons: a +2 light mace and a nonmagical cold iron morningstar. Vondran, Tika and Loki discussed the mithral shirt at length as they all stood to benefit from it. Vondran had his eye on a more exotic prize, though -- the black dragon's hide. In the end they decided to have Vondran wear the shirt initially, then pass it to Loki once a tanner and armorer had done their work on the hide.

There were also questions. Dragons are notorious for lying amidst their hoards, yet this one had constructed a crude barricade with iron doors and kept his gold within it. At the back of this inner chamber was an anteroom, also with iron doors. Those doors, which had also been broken down, had been sealed with the holy symbol of Heironeous. Did this mean that the tomb had been breached?

The party had already concluded that they had used too many resources to continue exploring seriously and would need to camp for the night. Tika took a preliminary look into the anteroom only to be attacked from above as a large patch of green slime fell on her and tried to consume her. She scraped it off and burned the remainder with a torch, and that ended the day's explorations. The group used the healing spells they had left and called it a night.

After a night's rest and spell recovery, the group addressed themselves to the wooden door at the other end of the anteroom. They found it locked, which led Tika to question whether there was any need to explore further, but the rest of the group wanted to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises lurking to harass Gross Fell in the future. Vondran checked the door for traps and found none; Karu opened the lock to reveal a narrow corridor leading to a stone stairway.

Vondran and Tika went first. No sooner had they stepped into the corridor than the floor beneath them opened up. Tika caught herself but Vondran fell through into the rushing stream below. The current tried to carry him out of the tomb but Vondran was able to make it to the bank in the outer cave where they had fought the dragon and circle around to rejoin the party.

Now more cautious, the group mounted the stairs to a landing with three identical doors. Two were not locked and led to crypts long-since demolished in an obviously violent battle. Small crawlspace tunnels led out from each of these, but the party chose not to follow them. Instead they addressed the third door, which was still locked. Karu opened the lock but was stung by a poisoned needle trap that Vondarn had failed to find. He felt the affects of deathblade poisoning immediately and knew it was harmful but not fatal. A lesser restoration from Tika would fix him up.

On the other side of the door they found a crypt similar to the other two, but this one had not been violated and was not unoccupied. Two wraiths confronted the group immediately and focused their attentions on Vondran and Karu. Ash recognized them as incorporeals and went with the guaranteed damage of magic missiles while Karu tumbled away to avoid the wraiths' life-draining touch. Tika's attempt to turn the creatures failed, but the group made short work of them. Loki's mindblade slashed through one repeatedly and Ash killed the other with another magic missile volley.

The plain sarcophagus in this space retained its seal and the crawlspace was still covered with a metal plate. Loki opened the hatch and used his darkvision to scope out the passage. He found that it joined up with the other two and led to what appeared to be an old cloakroom. He relayed his findings to the party and they followed him.

The cloakroom held nothing of interest except an exit which led to a larger space containing a table and chairs. Tika had a detect evil spell active and it warned her that the room held two evil extraplanar creatures of somewhat lesser power than she. The truth of this became apparent quickly when two shadow mastiffs rushed to the doorway to attack the group. One bit Tika before taking a hit from Karu, who tumbled between the beasts to get an attack angle. Rasmus tried to follow but was knocked prone by the mastiffs.

After absorbing hits from Vondran and Tika the mastiffs vanished into the shadows, but they were not gone. One made a frightful braying sound that was briefly unnerving but unharmful, and both continued to attack from the cover of the shadows. The cover was not enough; even as the second mastiff sent Loki running with a horrifying bay Karu and Rasmus ended the beasts' lives with their weapons.

A twisting corridor led away from the mastiffs' lair and ultimately into a bare room with a sinister occupant: a black-skinned humanoid that Tika recognized as a bodak. The bodak looked as if it had recently lost a fight, as one of its large black eyes had been gouged out and the body showed scarring as if from claws or teeth. Considering that bodaks are known for their death gaze, which can slay a perfectly healthy warrior instantly, the party saw this as a good omen.

Ash cast resistance to gain an edge against the gaze attack while Rasmus used cat's grace to increase his mobility. Tika tried to turn the bodak but was unable to channel enough positive energy. The bodak entered melee immediately, first attacking Karu and then Vondran. A scorching ray from Ash did more damage than even the Arm of Telomir against the creature's defenses, prompting it to take one more swipe at Vondran and then backpedal to a raised dais in the corner of the room.

Realizing that the bodak was extraplanar, Tika summoned a celestial bison to help in combat. Unfortunately, Loki then charged the platform only to have his mind blade disintegrate as soon as he touched the raised floor. His senses told him he had entered a null magic field: an area where no magic or psionic power could operate. He remembered the cold iron morningstar from the dragon hoard and ran to Tika to borrow it while Tika, now realizing the bison would be of no help, focused her attention on ways to get the bodak off the platform.

Meanwhile the bodak continued to slam Karu on the platform. Vondran threw his weapon but its magic did not help him and the magic silver weapon could not overcome the bodak's damage reduction. For a time it seemed they were destined to take the bodak down one glancing blow at a time.

Loki changed that when he reached the platform with the cold iron morningstar. The heavy weapon bit into the bodak's flesh far more effectively than any other weapon the group had tried. Karu stepped back to let Loki engage while he pulled out a rope and, at Tika's suggestion, formed a lariat to try pulling the bodak off the platform. He made one attempt to lasso the creature and missed before Loki rendered the strategy moot with a killing blow.

Once the bodak was destroyed the group was able to examine the area more closely. The only feature of interest was a statue on the raised platform. It depicted a male human, well-dressed, with a haughy smirk on his face and the unholy symbol of Erythnul etched into the upraised left palm. Behind the statue was a locked iron door.

Karu opened the lock and the party entered a long hallway that smelled strongly of sulfur. As the party followed the winding passage that smell grew stronger and was accompanied by a rising temperature and a persistent bubbling sound. As they continued on they found themselves surrounded by four bizarre creatures that seemed to materialize from within the solid rock walls. Each was small in size and had three arms, legs, and eyes spaced equally around the body. Each body had a gaping mouth at its top.

Even more surprisingly, the creatures spoke Common. One addressed Tika and Vondren demanding that they surrender their precious metals. Ash recognized the creatures as minor xorn, extraplanars that feed on valuable metals and can move through stone as fish move through water. Tika offered up a generous handful of coins from the dragon hoard, but this was not enough to satisfy the xorn; they demanded more and then attacked.

Xorn bit Vondran and Karu, who quickly learned that their enemies were resistant to piercing weapons. They weren't resistant to magic missiles, however, and Ash took advantage of that more than once.

The xorn were difficult opponents. Their small size and tough hide made them hard to hit, and the party was bunched up in a small space. Tika tossed handfuls of coins over the xorn's heads to tempt them into backing up, which opened up some space for the party to move. Those with bludgeoning weapons brought them out and found them to be more effective than blades. Soon they were scoring hits and doing damage. Three of the xorn were killed and the fourth vanished into the stone wall and escaped.

Beyond the corridor lay a stone bridge over a pit of bubbling hot tar. The party crossed the bridge two abreast and once again discovered a trap door by having it open beneath them. Vondran and Tika felt the floor give way beneath them. Vondran caught himself on the edge and managed to grab Tika to keep her from falling through into the hot tar. They carefully worked their way around the pit and continued on.

At the other end the party found another plain corridor, but immediately upon entering it Loki and the spellcasters sensed another null magic area. The dead zone extended 60 feet down the hall to a door on the far end. Etched on the door was the holy symbol of Heironeous.

Knowing the hallway would make casting impossible, the party backed off to the bridge and cast some preparatory spells. Ash used false life to gain some hit points while Tika cast protection from evil on herself. Karu opened the lock and the door swung open to reveal a long triangular room. Sitting on a stone throne at the far end was a man in fine clothes who looked exactly like the stone statue in the bodak's lair: Elizar Branded-Hand.

Elizar expressed his relief at seeing the party; he had been locked away, he explained, and held in some kind of suspended animation for hundreds of years. The party wasn't buying his explanation. They came inside, which allowed their protective spells to begin working, and Elizar showed his true nature by attempting to cast confusion on the group. They focused their minds and shook off the effect, which enraged him enough to try and dominate Vondran with his gaze. The darfellan avoided the gaze and kept his will, and the party knew they were dealing with a vampire.

Loki, Karu and Vondran charged the throne with their weapons at the ready and each landed a good blow. Tika called down deific vengeance on the vampire, Rasmus blasted it with the force of nature's purity, and Ash favored the enemy with a scorching ray. The barrage sent the vampire scrambling for a clear space. Bleeding and wounded already, Elizar assumed gaseous form and headed for the open doorway, but Ash reached behind and slammed it shut.

Elizar rematerialized in an open area and berated the party. The door, he explained, could only be opened from the inside by a cleric powerful enough to turn a high-level undead. The group had trapped themselves, he said. Then Elizar tried to bargain with the group for his release.

The party was having none of it. Elizar swore again as the party closed and attacked. His body was quickly reduced to gas, which seeped through a series of slits in the side of the throne and disappeared. The party got out their bludgeoning weapons and bashed in the side of the throne to reveal the compartment that hid the vampire's coffin. The pulled the coffin out and destroyed it, then watched as the gaseous body of the vampire, left with no sanctuary in which to regenerate, expired and vanished.

Elizar had little in the way of valuables to reward the group. They recalled that the legend had him forcibly expelled from the town and chased into the tomb, so clearly he'd had no time to gather his wealth. They did find a belt pouch filled with valuable gems, a pair of bracers of armor, and the vampire's +2 cloak of charisma. There were bookshelves partially filled with arcane texts that would also fetch some coin in a city. There was nothing else of value in the place.

Tika used her holy symbol to channel enough positive energy to open the tomb door and the party made their way back to Gross Fell, dragging the dragon carcass with them. The village elders were grateful to see the dragon dead, but on hearing the news that Elizar Branded-Hand was no more they rejoiced and called an impromptu feast in the party's honor.

Over a succulent meal of dragon steaks and meade, the elders praised the heroes and asked the details of their adventure. Orin Bronshelm, cured of his lycanthrope by the clerics of Pelor, joined them for his part of the tale. At the mention of the Fell Armada the elders grew quiet. Then Arrak volunteered some unexpected information to the group: he knew how the Commanders of the Fell Armada evade capture.

According to Arrak, the Commanders had a habit of moving from village to village, always keeping near the coastline but seldom stopping right on it. They deliberately chose small villages with weak defenses. Upon reaching the chosen village, the Commanders would take a small number of strategically-chosen hostages and use them to compel the rest of the villagers to hide the Commanders and provide for their needs. After a period that varied from a few weeks to a season, they would release the hostages and move on to another village. Often the hostages had been turned into lycanthropes and would either run away or join the Commanders as spies or thugs.

The heroes accepted this news with relish. Lord Mayor Ander had offered them a reward for either Orin's safe return or the capture of the Commanders. With a little luck, they may be able to deliver both.

<MR>
11/24/06

This adventure was inspired by, and borrows heavily from, Rich Redman's Start At The End, a free D&D adventure download from Wizards of the Coast.