Castle Naerytar certainly looked like the sort of place that legend said you'd find a black dragon. There was a pervasive atmosphere of decay and a corrosive taste to the air that was beyond unpleasant. The Order of the Gauntlet guards within were more than happy to direct the group on toward the portal that the cultist leader had fled through. They all geared up to get ready for the trip, worried that the other side would be held against them by prepared cultists and perhaps another dragon.
Instead on sending Ijit through to investigate Ravyn reported that it seemed to be an unguarded exit and that there was nothing in the area aside from a nearby hunting lodge which currently seemed to be empty. Cautiously they moved through the portal.
"It's a little bit cold."
Caress nodded in agreement and shivered, wishing her tattoos helped guard her against the elements as well as it held off the bite of blades and fangs. Moving closer to the reported hunting lodge, they came to find it, standing tall with at least four levels of windows visible on the face. There was a great foundation of stone below a framework of wooden walls and high-arched roof with embedded windows. At first they could find nothing of interest, no activity even, but then they came to find the sign of trolls in the back rigging up a number of human-sized lizards for use as hunting animals.
Looking back, they saw the rolling mist circulating about the portal and then glanced ahead towards the hunting lodge. Advancing carefully, Mythram walked up to the door and knocked upon it. A moment later, the door was opened to reveal a white kobold sticking its snout out into entrance.
"What does it want?"
A second kobold stepped forward to the first and performed a gesture towards the party.
"No, they make the gesture, not us. What does it want?"
Ravyn, recognizing the gesture for what it was, a praise of Tiamat, takes the opportunity to step forward.
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| Sneaky Mythram, Tricksy Ravyn |
"We're here to investigate the situation at the lodge, make sure everything is fine."
The kobold's seem confused at first but eventually allow the party in, and within they find a cultist of about human-sized wearing a mask and a chef's outfit standing behind a long table loaded with food.
"Come and eat!" the kobolds said.
"Well, we'd like to speak to the master of this place," Ravyn suggested.
Seeing the doubt of the kobold, Caress stepped forward and whispered that they were here to chastise Wormreader and that it would be better if they were allowed to act unimpeded. She dipped into her yuan-ti blood to coat the words in enchanting magics, but they didn't seem to stick very hard.
The kobold spoke of fetching Lady Talos, but Ravyn heard them mention the name Thespin.
Caress stepped back, eyeing the food and cultists as she tried to start the ritual to detect poison and disease. In the meantime, Mythram had snuck around to the next room and saw that a troll was getting ready to burst into the room. Rushing back, she fell afoul of a freezing trap, but yelled out her warning.
Immediately weapons were drawn. Caress rushed over to try and cut Mythram free with her dagger, enchanted by the favor of Sharess. Unfortunately the magical ice was resilient and she was unable to break the Rogue free and Lyra cast a spell to enchant her breath.
Back in the room, a kobold with a sling smacked a bullseye into Lyra, sending her reeling backwards. Which is when the troll burst into the room, flexing four powerful arms and leading a cadre of ambush drakes.
One of the cultists slammed shut the kitchen door, fleeing the combat as soon as it began and the troll appeared. Kobolds slipped in stabbing Ravyn and trying to peg Lyra with more bullets. Ravyn reaches out with her mind to slash through the will of one of the ambush drakes. Another drake tries to push past her and Ijit, and both took the opportunity to wrack up the beast.
Standing beside Myhtram, Caress calls out a prayer to Sharess causing a shimmering beam of blue-green light to cascade down over the four-armed troll. It appeared like river water shimmering in the moonlight and burned the troll greatly just as Lyra unleashed a barrage of lightning breath upon the enemy. The Troll pushes through the pain to strike Ravyn with a barrage of claws and Caress reached with the power of the Still Eye of the Dragon on her shield to absorb one of the blows from across the room.
Regardless, the encounter left Ravyn in poor condition. Beside her, her imp friend slays one of the ambush drakes and she turns to address the troll with a magically enforced joke, causing the troll to seize up with incapacitating laughter while still lingering within the field of Caress's Moonbeam. Taking the opportunity, Ravyn flees contact with the enemy. One of the drakes leaps past the fleeing warlock to attack the moon sorceress only to be batted away by the Glassstaff.
Caress and Mythram are under assault by kobolds and ambush drakes in the meantime, and as Mythram breaks free from the ice, Caress kills the kobold and drake present before rushing to confront the troll. Ijit slays another cultist, and a second almost in passing. The troll breaks out of the laughter when the moonbeam burns it, and turns to slam into Caress, wearing the paladin down heavily causing her to loose focus on the Moonbeam.
Mythram rushes in wielding the power of her Quiet Eye to help force the strike, only to have the troll prove far more nimble than he seemed. This did leave him open to Mythram's dagger coming in from another angle however. Lyra's lightning breath chars most of the remaining drakes and kobolds though one bursts out of the room, forcing open the door that had been barricaded by the startled cultist earlier. Ijit zips after them in pursuit, killing one though falling to a lucky blow from the remaining cultist.
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| Trolls hurt. |
Ravyn unleashes with her eldritch blast, drawing the trolls ire just long enough for Caress to step in with her enchanted hair-pin, as sharp and sure as any dagger, and channels the raw wrath of her goddess through it into the beast, weakening it to near the point of death, but already the troll seemed to be healing. Lyra rushes forward and calls down the force of thunder to cut through space-time and leaving behind a painful sound, bringing the beast to unconsciousness before using her telekinetic powers to shove the body into the nearby fireplace.
The last remaining cultist flees in terror calling for Lady Talos.
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