Drakonia Adventure Log - Session 2

The Shadow Dragon and the Ruined City

Party:
♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Rhakka (theifling warlock)
♦ Jenn (half-elf fighter)
♦ Dia (pixie rogue)

    The party travelled back to Pridemaine only to find the city in ruins. Everything looked like a total blast area, and Alvana recognized the surrounding conflagration as what a dragon might have done when pillaging a city. Pridemaine itself did not appear very familiar to her. Those who knew Pridemaine as the Capital of Griffin Dutchy, one of the Human Dutchies, however find various clues which suggested that a very long time might have passed. In the ruins they eventually encounter an old woman with a screechy and maniacal voice, who tells them that queen Aalana had been gone for 120 years, and that The Shadow now reigns supreme. She turns out to be a wraith, and she breathes undead life into the nearby dead bodies and the party has a fight with the dark creatures which they destroy. (Alvana was particularly effective against the wraith abjuring her.)

    In the distance, the castle of Pridemaine, in ruins, displayed on its highest level, the bodies of the Hands of Fate, as a disgusting demonstration of the Shadow's current level of power.

    With Aalana we decided we needed to infiltrate the castle while The Shadow was away, to collect remains of the Hands of Fate for potential resurrection, or for rituals which may aid us against The Shadow. She knew of a secret passage, which we took, only to find it guarded by one Saevis Silvertongue, with which the party had had previous encounters, and which Alvana herself stupidly remembered from a past life as a brief lover. This made her quite hesitant in battling him, despite his being surrounded by cambions and legion devilgrinds. This was sort of a frustrating encounter because enemies blocked our way and kept the many melee combatants of our party out of reach in the corridor of the secret passage.

    Saevis was eventually disabled and we interrogated him. He confirmed some of our worst fears, stating that The Shadow had achieved apotheosis into a huge Shadow Dragon, and as such had obtained immortality. After the interrogation, the party killed Saevis, who did not beg for his life, but rather spoke in a zealot manner about The Shadow's power with his dying breath.

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    After following the secret passage all the way to the tower with the Hands of Fate, the party collected small samples of all the bodies and quickly tried to make their way out of the castle through a different passage, but were spotted by The Shadow Dragon.  What followed was a dangerous chase scene, during which Queen Aalana wanted to sacrifice herself to hold off the Dragon while the party escaped, conjuring a great bubble of light around herself, and telling the party to flee. The Goliath Elessar would hear of no such thing, and tossed his great fullblade at The Shadow. Although it was but a small distraction, he grabbed Aalana's hand and ran with her, effectively saving her life. At one point during the chase, a member of the White Knights, dressed in silver and green, riding on a unicorn mount, moved to fight the dragon, and later opened a portal for the party to leave through.

Brief comic about Aalana's would-be sacrifice, and Elessar's desperate tossing of the sword.

    The portal took them to a small house outside of Pridemaine, and in the distance the party could see The Shadow Dragon releasing his full fury against the ruined city, but thankfully the party had escaped his wrath.

    The knight introduces himself as Sir Lancelot of the Lake, the Green Knight, and when removing his helmet we find he is an eladrin. He speaks of the forests of Illithiria, which he fears might fall to the Shadow's ambitions. He also tells the characters that after murdering the Hands of Fate, The Shadow managed to ascend, and people still aren't sure how he accomplished this. Lancelot explained that he was on a mission in the Dutchies from the High King of Illithiria, to save survivors who may still be living in Pridemaine. He charges the party with the task of rescuing some refugees who were living in Pridemaine's sewers, whose passage was blocked by some kind of guardian.  Lancelot activated his shield with a word in Supernal, and it sent us on our way back near Pridemaine. We had to face poisoned waters, as we swam towards the sewers (Dia, the pixie rogue, was lucky enough to be carried in a jar throughout the experience.)

    The refugees were thankful when they saw us, and were amazed that we could deliver them from their difficult existence, but warned us that all who tried to defeat the guardian before us had perished.

    We entered through a portal to find the guardian was a far-realm abomination, chained to walls made of flesh and eyes. The battle was fierce as the creature could move several times in a mere couple of seconds, and its damaging auras claimed the life of little Dia.

    The party then took charge of 50 refugees, and they all rested to gather their strength before the journey to Illithiria.

Drakonia Adventure Log - Session 1

The Avatar of the Shadow

Party:
♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Rhakka (theifling warlock)
♦ Jenn (half-elf fighter)
♦ Hadarai (eladrin swordmage)
♦ Elendil (elf ranger)

Alvana sleeping in stasis.

    Alvana and Barrus awoke from stasis in a laboratory, completely naked, and with vague recollections of their equipment being carried to an adjacent room as they fell asleep in their pods. Surrounding them was a motley group of adventurers, which included a tiefling named Rhakka, a dwarf who introduced himself as Fredegar Boulder, a half-elven female fighter, Jenn, Elendil, elf ranger, and Hadarai, an eladrin swordmage. One of their group (Elessar) was locked in stasis in a nearby vat.

    While Alvana asked for a blanket to cover herself up, she looked around at the strange laboratory, trying to remember things about it, and feeling a bit intimidated by the large group of adventurers who in the meantime were arguing about things she couldn't focus on. She quietly asked them who they were and what their purpose was, and Jenn came to her to explain their quest... In a way which pretty much confused the hell out of the amnesiac Alvana. Jenn spoke of a thieves’ guild, of the Queen of Pridemaine, who had been or they were trying to resurrect, of how they thought they were traveling through the Shadowfell, and other things, spoken in a sudden blur. What hit home however, was the mention of The Shadow, which sent a chill down Alvana's spine. Jenn explained that as far as they could tell, the Shadow was some sort of Drow fighter/caster, and that he had been so strong as to destroy a flying ship.

Silly comic about Barrus' sword. [CLICK to full-view]

    They then moved on to exploring the next room, where their equipment was supposed to be, Alvana found her things and clothed and equipped herself swiftly, while Fredegar smashed various wooden cases, in the process succeeding to destroy Barrus's sword, who was understandably furious. Luckily a scroll of mending was found, but one of the adventurers, Elendil, who harbored spite for bugbears and feared that mending his weapon would make him turn aggressively towards them, threw a torch at the scroll, destroying it. Obviously enough that did make Barrus turn towards Elendil, grabbing him and almost choking him, while others of their group likewise responded aggressively. In the process Alvana was plainly shocked by how disjointed the group seemed to be, and begged Barrus, whom she felt a vague kinship towards, having been through similar experiences, to stop the senseless violence.

    Soon after the group relaxed the tension, the goliath who was locked inside one of the vats awoke from stasis himself, shocked at the madness of the current situation, and in a bossy manner told each of the people involved in the incident off and reminded them that they need to work as a group to rescue Queen Aalana. Thankfully, then, a second scroll of mending was found, and Barrus' sword was repaired.

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    The next room on their journey was a portal to a throne room where it seemed the Shadow himself stood before us to fight. The chamber, lined with statues contained a large round table in the middle, to which a powerful living soul was chained. A living soul, Alvana realized, was the spirit of a powerful creature, which had been disintegrated incompletely, thus becoming corrupted. It would require a ritual in order to be purified.

The villain we faced, The Avatar of The Shadow.

    The Shadow himself was a dire adversary even on his own, appearing to us as a very capable drow swordmaster, wielding two elegant rapiers, and nearly devastating the exhausted party. We did our best to vanquish him, and as he perished he laughed maniacally stating that through his death he will now become more powerful than any of us could possibly imagine. It was only later that the party would understand that this was not The Shadow himself, but a mere avatar of his, chained to the Shadowfell. By destroying this avatar the party inadvertently freed The Shadow of his bindings.

    But for now, the party was glad to have a chance to rescue Queen Aalana. Fredegar performed a purification ritual on the table and through it, Aalana once again stood in flesh and blood, before the party, and a portal opened behind the throne which would lead the party back to Pridemaine...