The Lich King has a crown, hidden away in his vault, within
his skull fortress, at the centre of his city of the undead, upon his
island necropolis, in the middle of the Midland Sea. If it weren't such
an important crown, if there were not so many great reasons to want to
steal (or retrieve) it, the wise would simply let it be.
But the crown is not just a crown, not just a symbol of power.
It is also the phylactery of one Baron Voth, and with the item in hand,
Urquilla may well have some leverage over the Baron, and be able
to track down where the legendary White Dragon is. The barbarian,
raised by the Takamak tribe since birth, longs to be able to enact
revenge upon the three great dragons who decimated his village.
So, together, the four of them set out for
Roachdale. Murdak's research had shown only one individual who might
know how to find their way through the maze-like necropolis; a half-orc
treasure-seeker by the name of Jont Urner. Roachdale was the location of his last sighting.
Kelly had been to Roachdale a number of times
before, selling furs gained from hunting expeditions. The village's
economy was cattle-based, and they had little opportunity for the warm
fur coats Kelly traded with them. However, when last he visited,
Urquilla noted that there was a deep sense of fear in the locals -
something in nature was upset.
That something, it turned out, was a living dungeon. It had erupted through the hillside,
and had drawn a swarm of insects around it, blackening out the village
with a cloud heavy enough to be easily spotted from a distance. Stump
took Kelly's hastily-crafted torch, and created a reasonable
smoke-filled bubble of protection from the creatures, allowing the group
to pass through.
The
horrid spine of the living dungeon jutted out of the centre of the
village, displacing and destroying a few houses and other buildings
along the way. As they stood before it, aware of the horrendous carved
skulls, a section of the wall opened, and five demons walked out.
Murdak was about to try diplomacy, but Kelly had no patience for such
clearly evil creatures, and quickly brought battle forward; though the
ranger stayed at a distance, Kelly's arrows joined the others as they
fought back the demons, slaying each and every one of them - and
acquiring a silver key.
Finding their way through
the maze of tunnels, whilst dodging the few remaining patrols, was no
easy task. Only together did they make it - Kelly used a fine shot and
some sturdy rope to allow everyone safe passage across a deep chasm, and
Urquilla saved them all from a long, cold swim by smashing through an
unstable wall when they thought the only way ahead was into the pool.
As their passage ended in mid-air, Stump's faith revealed an invisible
walkway across a giant cavern, and Murdak's magic kept the threatening
storm at bay.
Eventually, they made it to a room in which stood a solitary chest, its lock matching the key Urquilla wore around his foot. The key opened this chest, and within were an array of items - an elven cloak to hide Kelly's presence; an orb of power to replenish Murdak's magic; a potion to ward off the cold for Urquilla, and a vial of healing, straight from the Crusader's own stock for Stump. Stump and Urquilla also picked up some magical oil, before continuing on their way.
Eventually, they made it to a room in which stood a solitary chest, its lock matching the key Urquilla wore around his foot. The key opened this chest, and within were an array of items - an elven cloak to hide Kelly's presence; an orb of power to replenish Murdak's magic; a potion to ward off the cold for Urquilla, and a vial of healing, straight from the Crusader's own stock for Stump. Stump and Urquilla also picked up some magical oil, before continuing on their way.
The
heart of the living dungeon was a large, circular room, with cages
containing prisoners of varying levels of decomposition hanging from the
roof. The group thought they saw one that looked half-orc-ish, but had
little time to check it out before Kelly notices spiders and other
crawling creatures currying away from one of the doors. Surely enough,
the sound of footsteps followed, as the room grew colder, and the stench
of sulphur filled their noses. A large demon burst into view, and not
even Murdak felt it possible to talk this one down!
With a well-placed blast of acid, he
caused the demon such pain that handfuls of tick-demons leapt from its
body like rats fleeing a sinking ship, and flowed over to those standing
a little too close. Gnawing and sucking, the parasites caused Urquilla
enough injury that the vrock took him down - momentarily - the
situation all the worse when Stump momentarily lost his ability to heal.
But eventually, the parasites were
squashed, the vrock was defeated, and the prisoner rescued. The only
downside was that Jont was dead. All was not lost - the adventurer had
his map on him - literally. The map to the necropolis was tattooed
across the half-orc's back, and with Stump standing guard, no one was
going to take a blade to obtain the instructions. But - that wasn't
all; they also needed a compass...made from dragon's teeth.
Fortunately, Murdak knew someone...
There was an adventurer, a demon-touched dragon hunter (semi-retired) by the name of Shez-a-kah.
She was said to know of a brood of white dragons living up on Gorogan's
Maw, but she wasn't about to hand out their location to just anyone.
So, whilst Stump stood outside, disapprovingly glaring at anyone who
dared to enter the Shadow Port tavern, the others challenged Shez to a
game - should they win, she would tell them of the dragons' location;
should she win, Murdak would cover her tab.
Kelly and Urquilla tried to support
Murdak's game, with distractions, insights, and stories of old (Shez was
most impressed when Urquilla revealed that he was the baby found
in the devastated village, ten years post destruction!). He even tried
his own hand at the match, hoping that his time with the Takamak tribe
would help him - but it looked like it was a different game altogether,
or there were some strange rules added to it since. Despite their best
efforts, Shez proved victorious, and grinned menacingly as Murdak
struggled with the obscenely large bill she had racked up. The only way
he could afford to cover his end of the deal was to hand over the
precious stone he had found within the dungeon...and so he did.
Moved both by Urquilla's tale of
origin, and by Murdak's honesty and loyalty to his bargain, Shez
ultimately was convinced to share the position of the dragons, and the
party headed up the snow-covered, treacherous climb.
True
to her word, Shez's location proved to be the resting cave of not just a
few, but seven white dragon hatchlings. Fortunately, an older sibling
showed up to defend them (poorly, as it turned out), for the hatchling's
teeth would not have been enough for the compass. After rising from
the snow (for he had been knocked down again), Urquilla grabbed
the large flying beast by the jaw, and, with a tremendous blow, sheared
its head right off. Letting the body fall down into the ravine below,
the barbarian held aloft the gory trophy, knowing he was one step closer
to finding those that destroyed his village so many years ago.
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