Episode 5: Suum cuique Pulchrum

Aranala’s sleep was mostly not disturbed by dreams, but near the end, there was the face of your zombie slowly morphing into a much larger bloated form, the dead eyes slowly rolling towards you and then laughing. The dream faded rapidly as you awoke and put the night terror away from you.

Vax had a mostly dreamless sleep. Just before awaking though the dream had hints of wine, relaxation, merriment, emotional vulnerability, jimjar, and then waking the dream evaporated rapidly as you turned to the task of making goggles of the night.

Vax stirs then wakes. She opens her eyes and looks about the room, her body telling her that it is still too early. Though there is no sky down below, she feels her body slowly returning to the accustomed silent patterns of the dark. She frowns deeply. Peering around the room, lit by Aranala's ever burning candle, she notes Aranala's sleeping form in his new bedroll. A soft smile forms on her lips and a twinkle of mirth gaces her eyes. What a strange companion she found in the wallows of the world above, but down here.. down here.. again. Suppressing a shudder she takes a deep calming breath and as quietly as possibly makes her way out of the room.

There's a knock at the door of your room.

Meepo: "Yusdrayl the grand and majestic has ordered your appearance."

Shuushar finishes his meditation and stands to follow Meepo, "When the enemy thinks you are far, be near..." he half muses to himself, still coming out of his reverie.

Vax: "What about breakfast? "

Aranala looks pleasantly surprised at waking in relatively peaceful surroundings, until his gaze meets the zombie ranger staring directly at him. "SQUAK!?" He soon recalls Carakas, settles down, and shuffles after the others in quiet embarrassment.

Aranala bows too early as Yusdrayl begins speaking while Carakas shuffles forward too slowly a dozen feet behind.

Yusdrayl: "Bow before my majestic power."

Shuushar stares at Yusdrayl with unblinking eyes

... Vax tilts her head slightly as if thinking...

Yusdrayl: "You have completed the tasks I assigned for you my servants. For this I grant you the privilege of passage on the stairs without paying our toll... not that we can collect it any more that those goblins stole the bottom half of the stair and our dragon... but that's beside the point. You are charged with driving a passageway through the goblins to the bottom of the stairs so that commerce may recommence and all passers-by will resume their paying of our tolls"

Shuushar stares at Yusdrayl with unblinking eyes

Aranala stares at Yusdrayl with unblinking eyes. "...make nice!"

Vax: "Wasn't the original deal just to retrieve the dragon?"
Meepo: "How majestic and wise are you oh Yusdrayl. I will take our friends to the garrison and the entrance to the lower stairs."

Shuushar stares at Yusdrayl with unblinking eyes

Aran adjusts the Night Goggles on his face and blinks at Vax with a happiness bristling his feathery features, saying

"No one would come out here unless they have business, and no one would have business with me except you."

A low trill marks his satisfaction.

Vax: "Breakfast?"

Meepo leads the way shouting Ticklecorn and brings you to a barracks filled with the fiercest of the kobold warriors, well armored and armed including some with wings. A door like any other is unlocked and a plain hallway is revealed about 30 feet long with another similar door on the other side.

Meepo: "We locked our side and they locked theirs. This hallway has our pit trap so be careful. We haven't seen what they've done on the other side of their door, but it's sure to be nasty. There have been weird screams coming from that side and goblins saying "no, no, leave me aaaargh"... but I don't know what it's supposed to mean. Good luck!"
Vax: "that sounds dangerous"
Aranala: "You know what that means? It means it's gonna happen."

Shuushar tries to see the pit trap that Meepo was indicating. INVESTIGATION roll 19 VAX:13+5 so 18 Aranala:12

With an investigation roll of 10 or higher, you all see how there's a narrow beam through the center of the room and the floor on each side looks like it will fall away.

Aranala moves forward carefully, keeping himself squarely along the center path of the beam. About 10 feet out, he calls the zombie ranger forward.

The zombie shuffles forward carelessly missing the two foot wide catwalk and steps on the cantilevered pit cover. It drops suddenly 10 feet into an empty pit taking 6 bludgeoning damage.

Aranala's beak opens wordlessly and he stands frozen for a moment, realizing too late that was not planned through as well as it perhaps could have been. Not one to spend time on a failed plan, he gulps, and turns his attention back to the task at hand.

Shuushar follows next behind Aranala saying, "Attachment leads to suffering”

Vax Snickers from the back as she follows behind across the beam. She looks down at the zombie in the pit and waves pitifully at him before turning back to following the other two. With a bit of mirth in her voice she adds,

"I think he will be fine down there, besides, no need to hearald our approach with shuffling of feet, incessant moaning and the rancid smell of rotting flesh".

Aranala quietly approaches the door and investigates for traps.

INVESTIGATION 13 PERCEPTION 12

Okay, so the door and lock seem fine to Aranala. A couple jiggles of your thieves tool and the lock pops open. As you gently push open the door, your eyes catch the glint of a wire rigged to a bell about three feet off the ground on the inside of the door frame. Do you want to cut the wire with the scissors in the thieves tools?

No. Aranala steps over it and moves sneakily into the room along the left side wall. He looks back at whoever is behind him and points at the wire. And then his goggle-eyed face vanishes into the room.

Just beyond the door is a space for the door to swing open and then beyond that the ten-foot-wide hall is liberally strewn with sharp caltrops. On the northern wall, passage to the room beyond is partially blocked by a roughly mortared, three-foot-high wall, complete with crenellations. The wall beyond has large letters painted in blood red... but none of you read goblin.

Shuushar carfully enters after you stepping over the wire. Being 3 feet, Vax probably ducks under it...

Aranala stares up at the wall and readies his shortbow, sparing a look towards the others before sneaking forward quietly. His eyes are trained mainly on making his path through the caltrops.
STEALTH 11 PERCEPTION 9

Vax will follow behind as quietly as possible, listening and smelling the air…. ... 6 and a 2... Virtual dice hate me.

As the three of you carefully pick your way slowly across the field of caltrops, Vax, the big klutz that she is, accidentally kicks one. you have another 10 feet of caltrops to go when two goblin heads pop up over the edge of the wall and shout something at you drawing beads with their short bows.

Aran's begoggled face lifts up to the gobbies and so does his shortbow.

*incomprehensible goblin shouting*

Aran looks back at the others for any clarification.

Beads of sweat running down the forehead of one of the goblins. Holding the short bow drawn is tough... his arm starts to shake...

Vax throws up her hand reading to cast a spell but will shout in undercommon, "parlay?"

The sound of your voice shocks the shaking one... the bowstring twangs and an arrow flies past you over vax's head and sticks in the door behind you. Shuushar gives a mighty GRLGRLGLRLGRLGLGLRLGGGLL and charges.

Shuushar initiative 22
Goblins 7
Vax 3
Aran 20

"It's rude to talk about religion, you never know who you're gonna offend."
With a nod to Vax, Aran dashes and jumps the last 8 feet over the wall.

Shuushar is first up. Using the monk step of the wind he makes a hongkong kungfu on-wires style jump to the top of the wall and hits one with his fist and then chomps down taking off half of its face. One goblin down.

Aranala fails a DEX save and gets a caltrop under his foot but clears the distance to the wall. Aranala thwacks the goblin trying to knock him out not kill. A hit, and he’s down.

Vax watches Shuu launch into the first goblin, half the golins face dissapearing into a mess of blood. In the moment she opens her mouth to shout again..her voice dies in her throat as the other simply slumps at the blow from Aranala. She closes her mouth and chuckles as she makes her way over to the wall to climb over.

"Maybe we can get something from the survivor before his friends show up."

Shuushar's turn... he runs after the fleeing goblin shouting GRGRGRGLLLGLGLGL as he flies through the door and out of sight. Aranala?

Aranala lifts up his goggles and hearing the third goblin, quickly puts them back on. He is about to go after Shuushar when Vaxraff speaks.
He puts his rapier away and looks through the unconscious goblin's person. "This is why you should never show a work in progress!"

You see a small guard post with a giant rat roasted on a spit half eaten. The goblins have leather armor and crude shortbows (think ewoks). That's your turn... the goblins take their turn off screen and we hear goblin shouts and shuushar gurgles... vax?

Vax, seeing Shuu dissapear, yells after him "Shuushar!.. well hallifax and crumple buns, let's go after him. Let this one sleep for now" Vax goes after Shuushar through the door.

Okay, you've seen the way it bends... as you come to the corner, to your right you see dummies pincushioned with arrows against the wall... this must be a practice range, looking further... here is the situation. what will you do? (C has a shortsword and shuushar has an arrow in his shoulder)

A punch to the kidney and then a bite at his chest and the mutant goes down.

Shuushar turns to smile at you ... or whatever it means for him to smile... and then from the room beyond him you hear excited kobold voices. From cages on the south wall of the next chamber the kobolds shout.

"Adventurers! They're here to save the poor dragons in distress just like the stories... we're here. It's Leepo, Neepo and Cheapo!..."

And then a familiar voice...

Jimjar: "Look at this... Now I know I'm the luckiest guy in the world."

Commercial Break

Aranala half limps, half collapses against the wall just inside of the entrance and slides down to a sitting position to rest and tend to his injury before all else. He lifts up his goggles.

"Now, I'm just not ready to end up anywhere."
Jimjar: "Hello Birdy, you're looking like you've seen better days. No hurry, but I'd appreciate a hand opening this cage after you've had a breather."

Shuushar finds a corner to meditate in as the party takes a short rest.

Vax steps into the room addressing Shuushar and Aranala, "Don't forget we have sleeping beauty back at the entrance. Won't be too happy if he realizes his friends are no more, but then with those mutants, maybe he would be?"

Vax will inspect the cages. "Maybe we should get these three back home and rest"

Neepo: Yes, yes...
Leepo: We're so thankful to have adventurers come rescue us.
Cheapo: Thank you kind sirs and madam.
Jimjar: Three?

Vax shoots Jimjar a cold look, her red eyes icy. She moves over to I front of Jimjar's cage with her small fists on her hips.

"Okay, start talking ghost of Jimjar. If there was another way down why did you send us on that elevator?"

Aranala begins unlocking the cages of the three kobold, Neepo, Leepo, and Cheapo.

"You must've took the shortcut," the kenku says to Jimjar when he finishes opening the last one.
Jimjar: "Listen, I just consider myself lucky to be here. The elevator went down and I manned the controls, a drow came so I hid. And then there was a strange sound as ... and I might not have seen everything right, but his brain jumped out of the front of his face. One of the larger demons crashed into the controls and then... I woke up in this cage with a strange goblin-in-goblin standing over me... and then lo and behold, my favorite people in the whole world came and found me. See? Luckiest guy that ever lucked

The kobolds stand before you, bow deeply and then scamper as fast as they possibly can back towards their home.

Jimjar: "You guys look like you could use a hand. I bet you I'd come in pretty useful... After I helped you guys get away you're not going to just leave me here... are you?"

Vax bends over, drawing her face close to the cage, with a deep frown and squinted eyes...

The a broad smile creeps across her face. "If you say 'Im sorry for worrying you' we may let you out.

Then…

"I'm sorry for worrying you" /sheepish grin/

Vax straightens back up and adds.

"the next time you have a hair brained plan to sacrifice yourself for the greater good, you let us know beforehand. Birdy, could you open this for our recently returned from the dead friend?"

Aranala nods to Vaxraff, then opens Jimjar's cage.
He reaches back and pulls something from out of his belt. The kenku looks at Shuushar, "Your friend just made himself a star!" Then hands the Ornate Dragon Tooth Dagger to Jimjar, meeting his gaze more affectionately than previously, or as best he can with the 3 foot deep gnome.

"You earned this."
Jimjar: Thanks guys. It was a real squeeze in there. Boy, this is a great blade, you guys have been getting rich without me?

Vax rustles through her bags and produces 5 gold coins. Handing them to Jimjar she gives him a big smile

Vax:" and thank you for saving our bacon back there."
Aranala:"Now, now darling, it's still your day. We were a part of destiny. We were part of the same equation."
Jimjar: So what all did I miss... Shuushar?

Shuushar: Deep breathing, gills rustling...

Jimjar: Thanks for the update buddy.

Vax lets out a laugh and let's herself relax.

"Let's see what goodies these goblins had."

The normal goblins have crude shortbows/short swords and a few arrows... not worth using for anything. Basically just ewok level tech. Most of the bows are practice ones for this archery range. The two mutant ones each had a pretty descent shield, morningstar, spear, hand crossbow and 5 quills. There's the one goblin you didn't kill that you could take hostage/for questioning I guess...

Jimjar discovers the one that's unconscious.

"Hey... this one is still breathing. Do you want me to talk to him?"

Vax's head pops up. " You understand their jibber jabbers?"

Aranala gives his poking stick a few good taps on the ground and then stands watch at the door.

Jimjar: “Well it's not exactly jibber jabbers, but it's hardly what I'd call a language either so we'll call it even. What do you want to ask him... do you want to tie him up before you wake him?"
Vax: "Haha, well for one, what's with the mutants and two, where is the dragon?"… "probably a good idea... Uhh Birdy, do you have rope?"

Aranala shakes his head no.

Shuushar holds out to you bowstrings from the goblin shortbows.

Jimjar: "I suppose that will work... there is of course the cages that we just got out of too..."

Jimjar nods and then hogties him with hands and feet in the air behind his back... He starts calling out softly in strange blurgling.

The goblin slowly comes to and tries to move. Jimjar hushes at him and starts to speak to him. The goblin responds calmly... but very long windedly...

The goblin just keeps going and going...

Aranala will poke out one of the eyes of a goblin mutie with the poking stick. (and slight-of-hand the thing into his pack)

"I'll do it. I'll talk to him." He saunters up to the now conscious goblin.

"You weren't allowed in the swamp... there were snakes, quicksand... The one about the witch."

"But I'm not scared. You get nightmares."

He shows the goblin the eyeball and points at Vaxraff. "She'll make soap outta you. That's what she does. She makes soap outta people."

Vax wrinkles her nose a bit as she thinks about what Aranala is saying trying to translate it to herself in her head. .. did he call me a witch? (Lol)

Jimjar and the goblin turn to look at you. The goblin cocks his head for a moment and then turns back to Jimjar to start talking again before you pull out the eyeball. He responds to the gruesome sight with slightly more intensified speach ... but it's like listening to a european language that you don't understand where one party is just talking and talking and jimjar is just sitting there nodding and listening.

Vax taps her foot "how long does it take to say hello in this language? Is he telling you his life story?"
Jimjar whispers back, "he's saying hello. In goblin, if you are a prisoner, it is important to beg sufficiently for your life before introducing yourself..."
the goblin finally goes silent for a few seconds and then adds "Gleb"...
Jimjar: "He says his name is Gleb."
Vax: "I see.. did he beg sufficiently?"
"I think so... my goblin is a little rusty..."

Jimjar makes a few short sounds and then the goblin tenses up and starts to talk wildly for a sentence or two.

Vax will glance at Aranala with a grin as Jimjar queries the goblin. "Soap?"

Aranala: “Truly I saw it in the eye”

Jimjar: "He says something about experiments? But with demons? He doesn't like the mutants but they've taken control of the big boss goblin in their village..."
Jimjar: Should I ask about the dragon now?
Vax: "Yes, please do."

He turns back to Gleb and makes a few more obscene sounds. Gleb responds in kind.

Jimjar: "It's a young white one... if the goblins weren't being taken over by mutants they'd have no problem reigning it in, but it broke free and is hiding in the goblin village treasure chamber and no single goblin has the courage to put the darn thing back in chains... We're pretty lucky if it really is as little as he says."

Vax's eyes twinkle at the thought of a real dragon."A dragon, a real dragon. For the first time in my life finally.... " She come back with a start.. "oh.. uh. Why did they take it from the kobolds?"

Jimjar bleaks and burps at the goblin. The goblin screeches back.

Aranala: "You shouldn't curse. There are ladies present."

Aranala drops the eye on the floor with a squish and wraps his cloak around him, shivering at the thought of meeting any dragon kind.

Jimjar: "Well they came to the stairwell when they found out how the kobolds living here were using it to make money, and they wanted to take over the racket so they started by stealing the dragon. But then... something about a drow... and then some dwarves came... and the drow did something to them... That last bit, I can't tell if I'm getting the conjugation right on the participle."

Vax eyes Aranala for a moment, noting the shivering quriously. Not understanding, she considers the current temperature and doesn't consider it that chilly. Crossing her arms and giving a deep exhale... She thinks for a few moments before turning to the others.

"I'm inclined to try to free the goblins of the mutants, if they are willing to trade our help for the dragon, but it's a long shot to get them to agree without having to put quite a few of them down I the process. I'm not too favorable on killing them outright since they aren't exactly pure evil like the demons are. Thoughts? "
Shuushar: "Evil is an illusion, but life is precious. I will only strike those that have struck at my friends."

Vax nods to Shuushar and looks expectantly at Aranala.

The goblin squawks and makes a strange hacking sound in his throat while trilling.

Jimjar: "Gleb here says he'll guide us past their traps if we let him go."
"Where are you going...? I'm going with you." Aran replies back to Vax. "I'm going with you."

The kenku then mimics the latest sounds and trilling noises of Gleb.

Vax smiles at Aranala and gives a short curt nod. She lowers her gaze for a moment, still smiling, and looks back to Jimjar.

"I'm ok with letting him go if he will speed us past his traps, though I would like to know your thoughts… as well as Glebs thoughts on trading for the dragon."

Aranala goes back to the doorway to keep a watch out.

Jimjar: "All told. I'm feeling lucky. I bet you we can take this baby little dragon no problem. If I'm right, I'll wager half my share his spoils. Isn't that right ol' Glebby" ... as;hasjhdflkjhasf
Gleb: asg;kjhaksjdhflk
Jimjar: He hopes you'll get freedom for his people, but there's a ... sadness?
Vax: "Sadness?"

The goblin is freed and leads the way to the northern door.... beyond is a hallway

Jimjar: "Yeah... like he's not expecting it for himself or something..."

He leads you alittle past halfway down the hall and then tips open the trapdoors on both sides of the 2 foot wide catwalk down the middle of the pit in the last 10 feet of the hallway. Gleb points at the door on the other side.

Gleb: asdfapoiup;ija;soidhfuha
"ah.." Vax muses.. "He may be killed for failing his post... Or maybe he is already corrupted."

Vax moves along with Gleb.

Jimjar: "He says that this is the last trap, and through that door is their treasure room, beyond that is the goblin village."
Shuushar: "Did he just say treasure room? To have many possessions is to have many burdens.
"Depends on what you call treasure..." With a wry smile Vax turns to Shuushar. "Not all treasure is a possession, and the most valuable you can never hold in your hand."

Gleb starts to go on and on... and on and on... again Jimjar leans over and whispers so as to not inerrupt

"He's groveling his way towards letting us know that he's done all that he can, and he'd like very much to wait in this room on the right side of the hall or in the cage back there while you most esteemed and powerful, bloodthirsty and almighty, etcetera etcetera continue on your glorious journey into demigod-hood and legend eternal... "

Gleb pushes open the door to a filthy room that must have been their barracks. The stench, garbage, and carrion here are evidence of use by unsanitary tenants. Tattered hides stretched on frames form six unstable hammocks around a much-used firepit. Battered cooking equipment is mixed indiscriminately with broken or worn arms and armor.

Vax will approach the next door.

Alright. Vax in the lead you walk down the beam in the middle of the pit the goblin revealed and reach the door. Even from this side you can tell the door frame has been damaged. The door hangs a little loosely and there are splinters where the door looks like it has been hit like with a battering ram in the middle from the other side and it bows towards you.

As Vax passes her hand along the damaged portions of the door, she muses. "I guess this side used to belong to the kobolds too." Vax, looking back at her companions somewhat blank stares, shifts her shield and gently turns the handle and opens the door.

Mounted and stuffed animal heads adorn the walls. The mounting job is sloppy, and the assortment of heads includes cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. A few grisly trophies share the wall with the animals, including a couple of kobold heads. Smashed and broken cabinets and small tables litter the periphery of the room, mute victims of some sort of rampage. A rusted iron spike stands in the center of the room, trailing a broken chain. Thin patches of frost coat sections of the walls, floor, and debris. Against the far corner, a table stands tilted over, and the tip of a white scaly tail sticks out from the north side.

Vax lets out a small enthusiastic "eep!" Her eyes glinting as she ventures in draconic. She motions to the others behind her to wait as she whispers. "The dragon baby.." She the. Ventures, as friendly as she can make it Hello...?" she ventures in draconic after she motions and whispers to her companions.

Shuushar and Jimjar follow... your voice hasn't seemed to have been noticed? Jimjar looks for cover on the left, shuushar moves quietly right

Aran exhales audibly, his breath a visible puff, "Halt."

Vax will try to grab each by the arm. " Woah slow down guys. There be a dragon in here. Let's try to communicate before anything else."

Jimjar shivers slightly in the cold... goosebumps rise on your skin... well maybe Aranala is warm? or gets ravenbumps?

"Let's get outta here." Suggests the kenku.

There's a slight shifting behind the table and the tail tucks behind... followed by a low rumbling and just the draconic eye peeking over the table at you...

"Leave it. We don't need it."

Aranala's hooded figure sounds tremulous as his stare remains locked on the upturned table in front of the of the dragon.

Shuushar stares with unblinking eyes... could it be that his scales glisten wetly? Jimjar seems entranced. Wings slowly rise...

Scratchy raspy voice in draconic: CALCRYX FREE...

Aranala kinda sidesteps into the corner and tries his best to attract the least amount of attention possible.

CALCRYX TREASURE...

It shifts so her neck is up and it's head fully risen but facing sideways looking at you out of only it's left eye. As it shifts so do Jimjar and shuushar gently

Gawking in the corner.

"Daylight come and I wanna go home."

Vax scowls at Jimjar and Shuushar and hisses at them both.

"Hey, what are you two doing? Get back. Let's not provoke him."

Vax will motion to her self and address Calcryx in draconic.

"I am Vaxraff. Calcryx isnt treasure. Calcryx is a free dragon. Let's be friends. Calcryx and Vaxraff. We help each other get free."

(hmmm... it has only 5 intelligence... roll an animal handling check)

(lol time to become a dragon snack.)

The sound of Vaxraff's voice strikes a chord in the kenku's mind. He remembers his promise to follow the gnome wherever she goes.

He will attempt to help Vaxa persuade the Dragon. He reaches into his backpack pulling out all three gems, two rings, and the silver amulet. And slowly walks towards them.

grand total of.. 5!!

WARM BLOOD...

It rises up and talons push over the table revealing the pile of goblin doohickeys it has gathered under itself... roll initiative

Vax puts her hands in front of herself, quickly realizing this is going pear shaped real fast.

“No, no, no, no...”

So at the top of the initiative, the dragon gets a lair action and creates a thick wall of ice around the doors.

Vax lifts her hands in the as magical tendrils gather at her fingertips and stretch to the ground. Rock appears to lift out of the ground clumping together into a rough form of white stone and golden emblazoned plate held together by lines of green moss. What appears before her, in the center of the room, is what appears to be a small wall. Eldritch Cannon Protector. As a bonus action she will "fire the cannon"

Aran uses insightful fighting with a bonus action.

He moves to the center of the room holding the shinies in one hand as his spear slowly rises in his other and looks for any opening...

"My town sent me for you to eat me."

You've caught it's patterns . It moves like a brute.. no tactics.

He strikes, throwing the spear but misses.

Shuushar charges and unleashes his full attack and flurry of blows

Punch: miss, Kick: hit, 6 damage ... open hand technique hit DEX save of 12 saves so it isn't knocked prone Elbow: miss Bite: hit 3 damage

Jimjar strikes out with the dragon dagger : a miss and a hit for 5 damage

Calcryx breathes out a cone of freezing cold catching Jimjar and Aranala... make a constitution save

Lair action... 3 icicles fall... 2 at Shuushar and one at Vax … one miss and one hit on Shuushar 15 to hit Vax (miss)

Vax steps up to Aranala and casts cure wounds upon him. As a bonus action she will fire the cannon again.

Vax shouts: "I can cast only one more spell before I am exhausted, make this count. Knock him down but don't kill it if you can help it."
Aranala getting his second wind after Vax heals him replies, "We're dead. I don't think we have very much to worry about anymore."
Vax will retort "Do something fancy then!"

He takes out his shortbow, aims his last +1 arrow and fires.

The arrow sinks deep into a chink in it's scales... the dragon lets out a massive roar...

Shuushar punches and connects in the torso of the beast (3 damage) and then bites but the dragon pulls away. Jimjar swipes twice and goes wide and then connects on the tail but the scales bump it aside. Calcryx snaps back at shuushar but the monk dodges.

The lair fills the room with a freezing fog. Everyone make a constitution save. The cannon takes full damage and collapses. Vax also takes full damage and the others take half.

Vax cries out from the biting cold. She shivers and curses luck, she closes her eyes tight and grits her teeth. Her breath coming raggedly she makes a split second decision and throws forward her hands advancing on the dragon. With the last of her strength she calls out another Eldritch cannon, this time a flame thrower next to the dragon "This won't miss!" As a bonus action she will fire the cannon.

That's enough... the flame clears the fog and after the spurt of flame finishes... calcryx lies still.. you killed her

Achievement unlocked: Wyrm wrecker

Vax collapses to the floor, still shivering, mostly from the shock of the cold than the remaining chill.

Aranala stands shivering the arrow in hand shaking... "My arms are stringy but there's good eating in my legs. I'm tempted to eat them myself..." then he notices Vax's flames kill the dragon and he hugs himself for warmth instead.

The wyrmling has scoured the room and gathered all items of worth into a nest she made behind the table. The valuables include a dragon-shaped, jade figurine (worth 20 gp), a crystal goblet (5 gp), and twenty-four pieces of fine silverware (1 gp each). Also, of particular note is a sealed scroll case carved of bone, carrying an inscription written with dwarvish runes.

The walls of ice remains around the doors. This looks like a safe place for a long rest and to level up...

Aranala is has made a fire with some wood scraps and his tinderbox...but is also timid of the dragon and procrastinating going near it, secretly hoping one of the others will figure out what to do with it.

Vax looks at everyone else and asks.

"Who's hungry? Dragon tastes like chicken down in the dark"

She will roast as best as she can.

All muscle is meat right.... you keep to arms and legs and not the organ meat I hope.

Aranala eats the last bread he has instead of partaking of the dragon meat. Aranala spends time reading the scroll contents and avoids touching the jade dragon figurine.

You have an eye for detail... although you can't read the dwarven runes, they get more rushed and sloppy as the letter goes on. The jade figurine looks similar to the statue that gave you the riddle earlier.

Vax, you have a dream in which you are approached by Luck... you've always known luck's presence. Luck led you to the surface, brought you good friends, and somehow still seems to be paying attention to you here in the dark. You don't see as Luck clearly as you would like, but when you wake you find a small silver coin with a satyr's head on one side and the goat tail on the back clutched in the palm of your hand. Somehow you know this symbol will empower you as you feel the understanding of new powers fill you.

(It's not really a pact that you entered into from your side (you didn't multiclass as a full warlock) just that Luck seems to have taken an interest in you.)

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SUMMARY: Our brave heroes confront the goblins, overthrowing the leader and the mutants and discovering a shaft deeper into the complex. Oh, and Jimjar just about got himself killed…

Some loot found around: there’s an iron chest that is the throne… Beside it are a potion of healing and two vials of antitoxin, and two spell scrolls (faerie fire and expeditious retreat… both spells usable by artificers). Durnn wears a gold signet ring with dwarven runes on it, silver earrings set with moonstones (20 gp each), and a matching necklace (50 gp). He also has a key on a chain around his neck as well as a long sword, long bow with 20 arrows, splint armor and a shield. Using the key to open the chest you find 231 gp and two onyx gems (30 gp each).