After returning to Kuldahar Victor and his crew were sent to a Lost Temple to retrieve the Heartstone Gem – a scrying device that could tell them more about what was happening. Unfortunately when they arrived at the temple they found it had already been attacked! And the Heartstone Gem had been taken! Evidence implicated Talonites, causing Maura to swear under her breath. Auril, Talona, it seemed all of Chauntea’s greatest foes were complicit in this madness! This lead lead them to Dragon’s Eye, a huge volcanic cave complex resembling the maw of a dragon…
Shortly after entering the strange cave, they were beset from all sides by Lizard men! To prevent them from being overwhelmed, Basil unleashed among his more unpleasant capabilities – releasing spiritual energies in a psychic assault upon all around himMaura went scouting out the cavern, and discovered some of the missing villagers were being held in cages by the lizardmen!Victor attempted to negotiate release of the hostages with the Lizard King, but they could not reach agreement on the subject of how many of the hostages could be eaten first…So Jim had to take over with more forceful negotiations.
After defeating the Lizard Man tribe and releasing the villagers, they were told more captives had been taken further below. Angus helped construct basic fortifications and they supplied the villagers with basic arms to defend themselves while they descended to explore the next level…
The next level was full of Trolls and Spiders. The Talonite influence in the area was palpable. Eventually they discovered a conclave of Talonite Priests conducting rituals guarded by Trolls. With the missing Mother Egenia from Kuldahar captive nearby! They couldn’t risk a direct assault with her in the middle, so Victor let Rose and Angus do what they do best… prepare an ambush!
After defeating the Talonites and rescuing the priestess, she lead them to the rest of the captives. Victor brought them back to the camp on the top level, so that Mother Egenia could tend to the villagers and prepare to return to Kuldahar. Meanwhile, Victor and his cohort would descend to the next level of the complex.
The next level proved to be filled to the brim with undead. Wights led by large Skeletal Lieutenants. And the voice of the Necromancer commander kept mocking them at every step.
Victor eventually convinced the Necromancer, Presio, to settle things with a civilized duel. Unfortunately she did not honor the arrangement when he came to meet her, and instead had her undead minions ambush him!Incensed, Rose leapt in to intervene. She was angry and scared for Victor, and so not as careful to counteract Angus’ effects on her magic as usual. This time, however, instead of her spell being sidetracked it was greatly enhanced. It did not merely drive Presio back – it nearly incinerated the treacherous necromancer.Moving further down into the complex, they come upon a suspiciously serene monastery claiming to worship Eldath. Victor saw through the ruse almost immediately, and was none to please with the deception. They ended up in a running battle with Yuan-ti mages, priests, and soldiers piling out of every nook and cranny. When the dust had settled. They began to explore for clues.In one of the Yuan-Ti treasure rooms they found the *perfect* accessory for Big Jim. Flaming magical Gauntlets!. No more would he have to rely on his Holy Slugger against magical opponents!Finally, after wading through a veritable army of Yuan-Ti they were confronted with the true master of Dragon’s Eye… the demoness Yxunomei!It was a hard fought battle, but eventually even the Yxunomei was defeated and faded back to her realm. The day was won. Now they had to take the Hearthstone Gem and the rescued villagers back to Kuldahar, and determine their next steps.
5 responses to “Victorians on Ice: Dragon’s Eye”
atcDave
okay, that was awesome. You know I was skeptical, but you got Yxi about perfect.
I love a lot about your team here too. Big Jim and Rose both had excellent moments. And I like how you’re handling the freed slaves in the story. Obviously a sensible version of the story!
Yux took a *lot* of takes. I’ve got about 70 images of her in a folder, and those are just the ones that reached “I’ll consider it” status. It *desperately* wanted to give her legs. I got some great pics of an adventuring party standing in front of her. Looked like a DMG cover. Unfortunately none of them looked anything like *my* party. C’est la vie.
I got some pretty good Yuan-Ti by themselves, but they fell apart with anybody else in the scene so I didn’t use any of those. But Yux. You just *can’t* do an overview of Dragon’s Eye without her.
Trying to give everybody their moments. Just going with how the flow of the story feels. The Severed Hand will probably get more Basil heavy, as he’s the “spritual realm” expert. But they’ll all get to shine.
I ended up with “(beautiful naga woman,hindu,large,bronze armor,red,six arms holding curved swords,enraged)”. Other than the legs issue that worked pretty well. I just had to keep trying for the 1(10) times she had no legs, none of the swords were slicing her own head, etc.
atcDave
I’d forgotten “Naga”. Yeah that makes perfect sense now. Its funny with a lot of these mythic beasts it still doesn’t know what to make of it sometimes.
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