D&D Campaign: The seal of Akatiel: 11th April - Part 1

The party had previously reached a river and initiated combat with a Dragonne. Forest lines the river on both sides up ahead, and a mountain range can be seen in the distance – the Well of Dragons is said to be nestled amongst these mountains.

The party drains the Dragonnes blood into the river, and the Black coach trundles through the polluted river to the other side, and the party follows the river to the North. There is enough space alongside the river for the Black Coach to comfortably fit. After about an hour of travel, the sun is starting to set again – and the treeline to the east is thinning out... The trees seem limp and lifeless, with no leaves with the bark faded out to a pallid grey-green. Several wild animals litter the ground.

The party goes over to investigate. A stream flows down from the mountains and comes to a stop, draining underground near the main river. All the trees within 50ft of this river are dead, and the trail of the river can clearly be seen snaking right over to the nearest mountain and up the mountainside. The scene is very ambivalent. A beautiful darkening sky over the snow-peaked mountain, the forest all around and then the death and decay surrounding the river. Upon investigating the area they identify that the water is fouled, likely caused by Black Dragons - the water is Toxic and Acidic as hinted at by the dead animals and plantlife in the nearby vicinity. Joe pokes a stick in, and it dissolved in a matter of seconds - he holds it up giggling and just manages to avoid a glob of the liquid dripping onto his bare hand from the stick.

The party follow the river towards its source, it leads out of the woodland and up the slopes of the mountain... After about 500M the river disappears into several springs in the hillside. High above in the darkened sky, a couple of circling flying figures can be seen... The Silhouettes clearly identify them as dragons. One of them goes into a dive, appearing to be diving to a point further up the hill... After a few seconds, it billows out its wings and slows its decent and disappears out of your line of sight. To the party it looks like a young black Dragon. Not a great threat to the party on its own.

Casting invisibility on themselves, the party heads up hill

Egan sends his familiar forth to see if it can identify where the dragon went. He assumes there must be an entrance of some sort to access an underground lair. The bird flies up and circles around for a moment before reporting back via its Empathic Link that there is a couple of structures ahead and that there is a huge hole in the ground between them. The party proceed and after about 20 minutes of climbing up the rocky hillside,they reach a small plateau on the hillside. The Plateau is a couple of hundred ft  around and two wooden frames sit in the middle of it about 40’ apart, between them there is a gaping hole in the ground. Suspended from each wooden frame is a hefty Rope ladder. It looks sturdy enough and of a suitable size for a human to use, but is clearly designed for something of greater stature.

Evictus bounds onto the rope, and Ceinwen decides to climb onto him - and together they begin to descend. Joe follows them down the ladder whilst Egan levitates himself down the chasm beside them and Dreinell decides to just jump.

With a loud crunch Dreinell hits the solid rock floor at the bottom of the chasm, some 75 foot down. A moment later there is some shouting in an unrecognised language and then a couple of lines of acid cut the ropes on either side - on the side that has people climbing down, it causes Evictus and Ceinwen to plummet, but Joe is left hanging from the ladder.

Nobody is badly hurt from the falls, and the party examines their surroundings: A large cavern, made of Hewn stone - cut out of the odd combination of Granite and Limestone that this area of the hill comprises of. The chamber extends to the south where another wooden structure can be made out in the gloom, and tunnels extend to the east and the west. To the east there are two Dragonkin, much like those in the White Dragon lair, but this time they appear to have lizard-like skin. 

Egan floats down points his finger and says "Kapow!" and a dark beam bursts from his hands, narrowly missing one of the beasts and disintegrating a football sized hole in the solid rock behind him. Evictus bounds into the closest guy and initiates combat, whilst Ceinwen and Dreinell pick themselves up from the floor and cast at the two targets. Dreinell inflicting wounds and Ceinwen casting Friend to Foe and turning one of the DragonKin on the other. Joe in a feat of Acrobatic Fail attempts to spin round and dangle from his knees, but loses his grip and narrowly manages to catch the rope as he starts to fall, watching in vain as most of the arrows from his quiver clatter harmlessly onto the cavern floor below, along with a handful of poorly stowed daggers.

The DragonKin fight each other and Evictus. Dreinell inflicts further wounds, Ceinwen whelms the standing target, whilst Joe attempts to hook himself in place, succedes and fires a single arrow shot that misses. Evictus hacks away, and Egan casts Haste on the party.

Evictus and the DragonKin that has Friend to Foe cast on it cut down the injured DragonKin and Ceinwen manages to convince the other that they are not enemies. It stops fighting and looks at them confused as Joe makes a long jump from the rope onto the ground, tumbles up behind him and performs two viscious critting sneak attacks that kill him.

The party quickly check the bodies for loot and retrieve a number of items (loot at end), then head to the next chamber downwards. This one is about 100ft deep, and again Dreinell dives down whilst the others start to climb. The glow of fire can be seen at the bottom. 

With a thunk Dreinell lands, and Ceinwen calls down "Hello, we are friends!" which convinces one of the hidden Mindflayers to step out from hiding to speak. 

The party shuffle down and as soon as they are on the ground they all get hit with a Mind Blast from a powerful Illithid Sorceror, knocking Egan unconscious. They also notice the Gold Orb sat on a pedestal in the corner of the cavern. Evictus notices the ground being disturbed by the invisible Sorceror and charges over, but fails to hit it - it then retalliates and manages to land two of its tentacles on him and grapples him to the ground, ready to suck his brains out. Joe comes over and starts poking wildly into the fray, but fails to do any damage. 

Joe himself gets flanked by another mind flayer who fails to hit him, Dreinell inflicts wounds and Ceinwen convinces the Minflayer that is not fighting to reveal himself and dispels the invisibility on the Sorceror. The melee continues, with Evictus breaking free from the MindFlayers grip and giving it a powerful whack from his Sword as Joe proceeds with a hasted backstab flurry (x5) against the sorceror, dropping it in a flurry of damage and constitution draining.

Ceinwen convinces the remaining flayer to stop attacking and sleight of hands the orb off the pedestal as Joe slays the freshly convinced mind flayer in another flurry of sneak attacks.

As Ceinwen lifts the orb up, two large glowing orbs are seen in a cavern to the east, which quickly grow and the form of a Gargantuan Black dragon emerges from the chamber, swooping towards Ceinwen who just picked up the orb. She yells "we are friends" to the Dragon who pauses in confusion. She tries to convince him that the party is more powerful but he assesses the party as no threat, but plays it safe since he believes the bluff and offers an allegiance. On a tenuous acceptance, he grabs the entire party in his claws and scrabbles up the exit tunnels and out into the open air. A number of large - huge Black Dragons start spewing forth from the hole in the ground behind them. In the distance they can see a number of shadowy specs on the horizon, growing larger, and a few of the party members think that they spot another dragon high overhead, with multiple heads - but when they look again, there is nothing to be seen.

>End of session<

Loot:

Amulet of health +2 <+2 con>
Scroll of Phase Door
Ring of climbing
Potion of greater magic weapon +3
Potion of Water Walk
2x Potion of Hide from Undead
2x Potion of cure serious wounds
Masterwork Silver Dagger
Bag of holding I

-V