Eye of the Dragon
DreamLyrics Play-by-Post
Who's Online Now
2 members (Barry Mulvihill, Miales), 12 guests, and 21 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Dice Roller
You will need to enable Javascript in order to view the Dice Roller.
Games Recruiting List










Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 4 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
nem #842920 Sun 28/02/16 21:50 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Bearkiller

He stared at the remains for a long time.

"This is my brother." He muttered sourly, before turning to Jex, "Red Knight slip away, one last time. I cannot kill, you cannot question."

Bearkiller stared a while longer, watching Zoltan remove the surcoat. Finally he huffed in a dark mood and stalked off. The halfling went to see where the smoke was coming from.

nem #842924 Sun 28/02/16 22:15 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>

"I think our guide has the right of it. We need to leave now and come back after the ice has melted. It even a fraction of the stuff were to fall ... well the dragon won't be the only dead thing in here. It is already starting ...", added, looking at the dripping, the the piles of dislodged ice and rock.


MikeD
nem #842928 Mon 29/02/16 00:01 UTC
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Seyja


Seyja followed the Paladin over to the battered and chewed corpse.

"Should he not be buried properly?"

nem #842942 Mon 29/02/16 04:22 UTC
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
D

He shook Almador's hand. It was a celebration of life.

He listened to the comments about burying the theif. He honestly didn't know how he felt about it. He guessed that was the right thing to do, but did he care to? He wasn't sure. That was a thought he would keep to himself.

nem #842953 Mon 29/02/16 11:14 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tindarien

He is relieved when both Jex and Seyja respond to the various treatments bestowed on them. With the exception of Heilbutt all have survived. In many ways that outcome was better than he had expected. And as he looks around he smiles after the Sergeant. He should dine and sup well on this story for many a year to come, something to tell his grandchildren one day.

Then he moves back to Nestaron, concerned about his friends injuries and the travel ahead of them.

"We all owe you much my friend. Had you cured that dragon, and it would have been understandable if you had, many more of us might have died. But the cost was great."

He looks at the ruin of Nestaron's arm.

"I can be a pair of hands for you, carrying your belongings etc., help you get back to where you want to go. It is the least I can do. " He nods. "But I am happy you survived, I did fear the worst."

nem #842960 Mon 29/02/16 13:26 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 17,920
Likes: 1
Moderator
Offline
Moderator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 17,920
Likes: 1
Jex

He half expected an icy death this day and when the blast of cold came at him with the great worm's dying breath, Jex was ready to accept death. As he slipped away into darkness, he started to see the faces of those who had died at the claws of the wretched ancient terror. They were smiling upon him for the gift of vengeance that he had bestowed on them. And as the world slipped into darkness, he was calm. His only regret now was that he would not be able to write the tale and sing the ballad that his friends all deserved.

Then he woke from the blackness, gasping at air, still shivering from the cold. His head was cradled in Tindarien's lap an the first thing that he saw was the smile on the high elf's face as he came to.

"Is it over?" the bard asked.

And then he didn't need the answer. The dragon was gone. The battle was over. The cavern floor was drenched in dragon ichor and pieces of it's guts were lying all about. It was a grizzly death but that is the way with creatures of violence, they die violent deaths.

He rose to his feet, still hurting from the battle, but now he surveyed the field and did a head count. It seemed that everyone who entered the cavern survived. It was a miracle! Tears of joy started to stream down his cheek. It was time to pick up the pieces and finish the tasks at hand. Then they would return to civilization, and the songs could be sung.

nem #842966 Mon 29/02/16 14:53 UTC
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 22,059
Likes: 8
(Buffalo)
Moderator
Offline
(Buffalo)
Moderator
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 22,059
Likes: 8
Zoltan

He shrugs at the question about burying Red Ed. "It is an empty husk. His spirit is gone, to whatever place in the afterlife his beliefs aligned."

He glances at the unstable ceiling. "Besides, when that comes down it will bury him better than we ever could. And if we don't want to share that fate I suggest we get out of here."

nem #842977 Mon 29/02/16 17:00 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>


Finally, someone else got it. "Yes, we should be going. We can come back and see if there is anything we need to address =after= the ice is gone."


MikeD
nem #842980 Mon 29/02/16 17:53 UTC
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
D

He turned over his pack dumping out every piece of that cursed treasure thst it contained. He did a double check incase the spirits were capricious. His chosen spot would consign the wealth to the abyss and it would be buried in all that ice when it came down. For he knew earth would come with the icy cave in.

Done he said "I have made my deposit and am ready to go."

nem #842987 Mon 29/02/16 20:45 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Nestaron

He squeezed Tindarien's shoulder. They'd seen some strife together, the revolt against the King of Meniscus had been brutal. They'd steered clear of the politics, their involvement only on behalf of the High Druid, an attempt the save the island's habitat before it was made barren to man and beast.

After the butcher's bill was paid, Nestaron had taken on Heilbutt as a follower, from his previous master, the dwarf Fuldroik. And then the three of them had caught the first ship to Rosencliff....

The cleric coughed and spasmed, then nodded his thanks to the elven sorcerer.

"Let us just agree that I was keeping the dragon busy while the - the rest of you crept up on it unexpected." He said.

Nestaron coughed again, his raw lungs irritated by the smoke.

"Though we might not be out of danger yet."

nem #842988 Mon 29/02/16 20:52 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>

"We need to get a move on", lest we end up burried with our foe", he said urgently as he looked nervously around the chamber that seemed ready to fall in on them at any second.


MikeD
nem #842990 Mon 29/02/16 21:00 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Bearkiller
(to Jex)


"Come. See for yourself, Bodejacker." He grunted, beckoning to the bard.

Bearkiller stood on the brink of the chasm. Coils of sooty black smoke were snaking up from below.

If Jex were to look, he'd see the breathing glow of fire deep deep down in the mine shaft.

White dragons were perculiar amongst the chromatic breeds, in that their breath could be as harmful to them as to it was to their victims.

That infamous cold breath generated intense, furnace-like heat in their bodies. It was why the Master of Winter's orange blood was always steaming hot.

If they overexerted their breath weapon, a white dragon could burn to death from the inside out.

When the party had first entered the mine shaft, they saw at the bottom was oil shale and pyrite, screened off by the miners to protect against accidental ignition. A stray spark from a shovel perhaps? Not the flaming, meteoric remains of a huge dragon.

nem #843018 Mon 29/02/16 22:55 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
GM

Seyja certainly had experience of glacial caves, and others likely had some experience of deep, freezing winters. It seemed Zoltan did.

When the ice melted, the cracks it had riven in the surrounding rock would no longer be held together. It wouldn't just be water pouring from the ceiling, it would be hard rock and dirt.

The dragon's hoard would be buried. You would be too, if caught inside.

Outside the sun was climbing on another hot summer's day, and the mine shaft was now a great chimney, roaring fire at the bottom.

So there was little time for ceremony, whether laying Red Ed to rest or the treasure.

The packs were spilled around the knight's remains, then Almador took out the haunted helm. Tarnished steel, missing horn and jewels, its aventail ragged. Gaudy yet brutal in appearance, so very suited to the gladiatorial arena.

The Sergeant looked at his companions, feeling self-conscious, as if he should say something formal. Standing there holding the crude helm, he looked less like the tubby, greying old guard, and more like the solemn champion of an elder age.

"Return to your grave, grandfather. Begone, and trouble your kin no more." He said earnestly and placed the haunted helm on a boulder of ice.

The cavern sighed. The candles in the mining lamps fluttered. A pale mist bloomed from under the helm, lifting it and burning with green balefire until it took on the semi-opaque form of a warrior wearing the helm. Behind him from the shadows stepped other ghostly warriors, regaled in motley arms and armour like the mercenaries they were in life. Their faces were hidden behind their helmets, but only Gorulon Gorehound's helm was material.

A voice spoke, the same tremulous voice you'd heard two days ago in the Baronessa's hall.

"We are those who died to regain our fortune and who to keep it would kill." Said the haunted helm.

"Doomed to suffer in the thrall of the white wyrm, our souls tormented by the wrongs we did in life.

"Thou hast saved us.

"Through the eye of the dragon we have learnt many secrets. Ask of us one question and it shall be answered, and then what is between us is done."

nem #843024 Mon 29/02/16 23:22 UTC
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Seyja


The barbarian woman looked to the fractured ceiling, nodded and turned back to face the others.

"You are right, Zoltan. We need to leave."

nem #843037 Tue 01/03/16 00:12 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>


"If we leave now, Seyja, we lose the chance at an answer from these spirits. Do we want to leave 'empty handed'", he asked. Truth, be told, however, he didn't have a question he needed answered and he =was= a bit nervous about the structural integrity of the place. Probably why he didn't think to suggest asking about his ring.


MikeD
nem #843065 Tue 01/03/16 04:13 UTC
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
D

He watched and listened. While he had too many questions he did not feel that it was his right to take the one secret. "Who will ask? Almador as it was his ancestor? Or one of you have something you need to know? That ring that it so desperately wanted?"

nem #843084 Tue 01/03/16 09:27 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tindarien

Supporting his friend, ready to leave this cavern behind him, he nevertheless is the first to ask a question. His voice rings out.

"Treading the path of my parents, to restart the Aurenaur e Du, it this the best life path for me?"

nem #843109 Tue 01/03/16 16:31 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>


Well, so much for working together as a group to find the best use of that one question, he thought with a silent shrug. The question had been asked.

He looked at Nestaron. "Isn't dragon's blood supposed to be valuable? Maybe we should collect some of this before it is gone? We have a few potion vials we could fill, maybe something else."


MikeD
nem #843131 Tue 01/03/16 19:38 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
GM

The ghostly warriors began to fade, but the voice answered Tindarien's question.

"The future is uncertain, even to the dead.

"We can only say that thy parents would think it so, Son of Trahice." It said and balefire flashed in the eyes of the haunted helm.

The queer light shifted, the helm clattered to the ground and the mining lamps shone as before, normal light in normal gloom.

The haunted helm had been returned. The quest was complete.

nem #843132 Tue 01/03/16 19:50 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Nestaron

There was certainly a lot of chilled dragon's blood lying around, though Nestaron hadn't considered it more than filth until Weston asked about it.

"It is widely held that dragons immolate when they die, and all that remains is bones. So their other parts are highly prized. Blood, that tooth the Sergeant gave you, all have value.

"You would have to ask Tindarien here or Jex, for the wherefore and how much." He said.

The half-elf was a healer, with little knowledge of magecraft or markets.

nem #843178 Tue 01/03/16 23:24 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Bearkiller

Climbing back down the mine shaft would be like climbing down a stovepipe, and the halfling didn't fancy it.

He was a strange little creature, with his buckskins, mohawk and dark eyes, and he didn't seem to notice the ghosts, though he spoke to an incorporeal dire wolf often enough. Was the phantom he'd summoned during the battle conjuration or perhaps a spirit itself?

Bearkiller was absorbed by the question of how to escape the cavern. If not by the mine shaft, by the pot-hole?

He scrambled over the rocks to stand beneath it, warm sunshine lighting him up. It was around four-score feet just to the roof of the cavern, then a further climb up the sides of the pot-hole to the surface beyond....

Bearkiller frowned. They had a problem.

nem #843185 Tue 01/03/16 23:50 UTC
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
D

Seeing the halfling move it occurs to him that they will have to get out that way unless they are willing to walk through fire.

"Do you see a way to climb up and drop a rope?" He asked the little mohawked warrior.

For his part he looked at options for climbing.

nem #843192 Wed 02/03/16 00:14 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 42,106
Likes: 5
<Weston>

"Or maybe we could throw a 'grapple' up there", he suggested to D.


MikeD
nem #843310 Wed 02/03/16 20:53 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
Sergeant Almador

Awed as he was, speechless, he couldn't reply to the spectre of Gorulon Gorehound.

Almador remembered the faces of his loving parents and the sadness that his grandfather had brought on them with his folly--- No, his avarice, his callousness! By what right did a dissatisfied man leave his family? They made their bed, they should damn well sleep in it.

Knuckles cracked as his grip tightened on his heavy flanged mace and he was glad when the elf spoke and rid his sight of the shade.

The Sergeant didn't realise how tense he was until everyone else started discussing escape. Then he swallowed and breathed heavily.

He glanced over to the sorcerer.

"I hope that answered your question, Tindarien, sir.

"Is Trahice your father? The dragon called you son of the same, did he not?"

nem #843311 Wed 02/03/16 20:53 UTC
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
nem Offline OP
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
OP Offline
Wobbly Headed
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 13,051
Likes: 9
GM

Quite possible, the bard and ferret-loving sorcerer might have considered the value of the dragon's blood. It had magical qualities, no doubt, but they might have been offput by it being deadly poisonous and, though gelid, contaminated with rusty metal, bones, waste and who knew what else.

Where the effluent reached the river and pooled it was even less pure and such a toxic mix that a scum of white pudding had grown on the top.

Even so, it wasn't the blood of some marauding, sheep-eating white dragon, it was the blood of a Primeval. The contaminants just meant they'd need to search harder to find the right buyer.

Assuming they could now get out of the cavern alive.

Bearkiller looked at D and Weston skeptically. As they circled under the pot-hole they too could see that a grapple would have to be thrown some 100 feet vertically straight up, dragging a rope behind it.

A climber would have to scale the wall of the cavern and traverse the ceiling, both of which were covered in crazed ice formations that were also melting.

The pot-hole did not look encouraging then, but anyone taking a closer look at the mine shaft would notice a few things interesting.

The fire down below could not have spread to the oil shale and pyrite yet. When it did, there would be a distinct whoosh and fiery explosion, and much more smoke.

So it was likely only the dragon remains burning... so far.

From this elevated view, you could see a sturdy wooden jib on the storey below you, not far from where you'd disarmed the trap. Built by the dwarven and gnomish miners, certainly, it still had ropes, pulleys and bucket attached. Part of a crane!

Sizing it up from a distance, it was probably large enough for four adult humans at a squeeze. You seemed to recall a derelict A-frame and windlass at the bottom, which was likely the lower part of the crane.

Maybe you had the inklings of a plan, but for two galling obstacles.

  • The flammables would soon catch fire and turn the mine shaft into a furnace. Thus you did not have time to walk back down the mine shaft, using the footpath.
  • If you rode in the bucket, you would plummet fast enough to avoid any explosion with ease and the bucket would protect you from the fire as it was. But you'd be smashed to smithereens when you hit the bottom. Unless someone was already down there to throw on the brake.


The question became: how could you protect a person against fire, then have them dive down the mine shaft first, and survive to operate the crane for everyone else?

Page 4 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Moderated by  nem 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Newest Members
Talon475, Randal Trimmer, Kimf, Yvon, Xiang Chin
177 Registered Users
Today's Birthdays
There are no members with birthdays on this day.
Member Spotlight
Posts: 47,983
Joined: August 2001
Forum Statistics
Forums103
Topics2,816
Posts139,482
Members177
Most Online296
Jan 19th, 2020
March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
†Restricted forums can only be accessed by DreamLyrics members of the age of 18 years or older. Access which is granted by the Behind Closed Doors Procedure.
™DreamLyrics Play-by-Post. DreamLyrics Play-by-Post does not own copyright on DreamLyrics texts or graphics, except trademarked DreamLyrics logos and logotypes. The works contained in DreamLyrics are copyrighted (automatically, under the Berne Convention) by the original authors and may be available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence. (See Copyrights for details.)
Privacy Policy
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5