They weren’t having a lot of luck finding a way past the door to their cell, when they noticed an odd spider seemingly waving to them from the floor. Marty hesitantly spoke to it, and it answered! It was Professor Balyn, the shape-changer! He said he had been outside the school the night they had been kidnapped, and had seen Nezbal’s servants carrying them away. They turned into dragons and flew away, so he turned to a hawk and followed. He had been waiting and watching for them to wake up ever since.
Margarite was in another cell nearby. And he had their belongings and a key to their door in a small bag of holding! He didn’t know who the traitor from the school had been. They were in the dungeons of a place called Dragonspear Castle, chock full of draconic kobolds, elite adventurers known as the Chosen who had become her followers, … and young dragons.
The plan was simple. Find and free Margarite. Then the Raccoons would fight their way out – in the process attracting all the attention so that Balyn could keep Margarite safe.
First they would have to get past the prison guards. Kobolds – but like no Kobolds they’d ever seen before.
A huge “kobold” berserker with claws that could slice steel.
Fast and deadly kobold assassins.
A flying kobold sorcerer.
Led by a dragon-priest.
After dispatching the guards, they still had to find Margarite. The Professor had given them directions, but spider senses didn’t quite translate, and they had a few false starts before finding the correct cell.
Finally they found Margarite… with company. Professor Baylan was with her, as was an old dwarven sage named Yasemi. He claimed to have been another who was imprisoned for rejecting being one of Nezbal’s “chosen”. The Professor vouched for him, and there were more pressing matters at hand. They would stay here with Margarite until the way out was clear.
Exploring further they fought many koblods, until they came to a large archway leading to a huge chamber reeking of volcanic gas. A chamber which turned out to be occupied.
Winny kept the green dragon out of action.
While the others dealt with the red.
But just as they defeated its companion, the green broke free…
And it took all of them working together to finally win the day.
They considered whether they should destroy the eggs. An entire clutch of red dragons – children of Nezbal – waiting to enter the world. But Yana wouldn’t hear of it. Babies were babies. Eggs were eggs. Red scales and flames or no.
Together with the clutch they found a strange dragon-shaped key. But it was clearly missing pieces. It looked like there were supposed to be three that fit together. They had a strong hunch that it would be necessary to find them all in order to escape.
Making their way upstairs they found themselves in a large castle store-room. Exploring a bit further they soon met their first of Nezbal’s “chosen”. He announced himself as Eryndor, Chosen of the Wilderness.
But while the others were tied up dealing with Eryndor and his Tiger,
the Wyverns concentrated on Winny in back. Tag teaming her so that she couldn’t properly focus down either of them… until one of their venomous stingers struck home!
By the time Marty could get to her she was in pretty bad shape. It took all his effort to counteract the venom.
They met a few other fanatical “Chosen” with small retinues, but when they came to the main hall there was quite the welcoming party waiting – a company of kobold elites serving an even larger red dragon.
It quickly broke out into an all out brawl, with Yana engaging the berserkers, Hans sniping the sorcerer, and Marty and Winny overwhelming the dragon with magic.
Searching through the carnage afterwards they found a hidden door into Nezbal’s private chambers. Whatever else she was, she was *clearly* a dragon at heart. They didn’t touch anything in the hoard. Seemed a dangerous thing to do with Nezbal actively seeking to become a God. They took another piece of the key, but that was all.
In a well-furnished chamber at the end of the hallway they found the last person they expected to see. (Ex) Dean Proudbeard. And not nearly as kind and fatherly as when they had last seen him. He called himself “The Chosen of the Academy”. That had been the traitor inside the school? The Dean himself?
He tried to convince them to join Nezbal, but they refused. He chuckled, saying that while he was older than he used to be he was still “the Master of Light and Darkness”. He summoned shadows and odd cubes of light… and vanished in a blinding flash.
Unfortunately the cubes concentrated their fire entirely upon Marty, and Winny wasn’t quite able to protect him well enough to counter their repeated lightning bolts.
And Hans and Yana were too busy contending with the Shadows.
So Winny grounded the energy constructs. Permanently.
In the Dean’s lockbox they found the last of the dragon keys, enabling them to open the main doors out of the fortress. They returned to Margarite and the others to give them the news.
They had been discussing what Margarite could recall of Thalorel’s memories of the Purple Wolf, and the Sage told them he thought it could be found in the Wildlands – the Outer Plane of untamed wilds. He only knew of one route to get there quickly from Solasta. There was a hidden, dangerous place nearby. A place that contained a portal to Terralba – the Plane of Beauty and Passion. From there they could reach the Great River – a conduit through the upper planes which could lead them to the Wildlands. An ancient place hidden deep in the woods known as the House of Mirrors. It was originally a trap used by the fey of Terralba to lure in hapless mortals. It was now occupied exclusively by those who were unaffected by mirrors. It was a haven for Vampires.
The plan was for Yasemi to meet them at the outskirts of the House of Mirrors, to help them find their way. Meanwhile Professor Baylan would teleport with Margarite to safety back at the Academy.
It was a good plan. But something about it made Marty suspicious. Call it a hunch. Call it instinct. He decided they should check in on Margarite at the Academy before they left for the planes. Sure enough, when they arrived Dean Oshyan was most confused. She had seen no sign of Margarite or Baylan. Dean Proudbeard was in his cottage not far away, and he had not left since retiring.
That two-faced shape-changing b!@#!@#d! Baylan was the traitor! But there was nothing to do now but follow the plan. They had to find the Purple Wolf before Nezbal. Once they did, Nezbal would find them. Baylan and Margarite in tow. They were sure of it.
Author’s Notes:
I decided to really go for broke with that battle in the main hall and see how far I could stretch things. In order to prevent the AI from totally dissolving into a gibbering mess I used a technique called “layer composting”. I rendered Hans and the Sorcerer, Yana and the berserkers, and Marty Winny and the Dragon as three separate images, and then fed those back as references to make the composite. I’ll do a post about the method sometime.
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