Great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.25e
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster

Dragons on the Doorstep

The "Happy Cheese", Minensal, December 6th 2100, 11pm

DM Note: Lizzie's first day in a new job tomorrow, so Nazariel is bubbled this week.

With quite a lot of prisoners, the Happy Cheese is becoming crowded.
Baggy and Baylock take Hesmar the bard up stairs, making it percussively clear that singing will not be allowed.
With Zone of Truth, a noose around his neck tightened if evasion is attempted and Baylock playing "nice cop", they interrogate him. Baylock saves against the Zone and cheerfully misleads Hesmar about his prospects if he co-operates; Baggy is aware of this but makes no comment. Hesmar, of course, believes Baylock is forced to be truthful and means to let him go.
Hesmar
The bard finally spills what he knows.
He is now the main contact for the Cult here, having picked up from Sawensuo after the latter’s fiery death. He didn’t manage to get the man’s papers – his house burned down during the arrest – but has done the best he could to keep the operation running.
The pigeons Annacane sends are responded to by pigeons from somewhere else, bearing the signature “Vokris” and containing his orders. He then posts them – or variants thereof – in the bridge postbox.
It was to him that the waggoneer from the convoy came to update him on the events on the road; he interrogated the man and wiped a lot of his memory. Too much – he was hit by a cart the next day and killed.
He regards the others as disposable morons, the scrapings of the Cult. He insists that he didn't ever do any of the dirty work - he wasn't part of the failed robbery, and just passes messages to the other three.
He knows the collected magical items go off on wagons – and now knows that they go to Lihard. He’s never been there, and doesn’t want to. He still believes, despite the tattoo, that this is just a money-spinning sideline and he can carry on with his career and fame.
I'd never considered the area of a ZOT but it seems very logical that it should be a sphere!
Leaving the bard, Baggy returns downstairs to the other prisoners - who are comfortably inside the radius of Zone of Truth.
"He's dobbed you in," she says, not necessarily untruthfully. All four protest, and declare in turn that Hesmar was in charge and took all the decisions. Baggy, fully intending to turn the lot over to the Watch, lets them rant and gathers information.
The minstrel/clown Wevelin, not tattooed, she judges as not a cultist, just locally hired protection for the bard. After putting the fear of gods into him, she tells him he'll be let go once things are resolved.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Baylock, professionally piqued, demands to know how Hesmar managed to update the postbox under his - Baylock's - surveillance. After some hedging, and Baylock breaking his nose ("No! Not the face!"), the bard admits that he uses a Ring of Invisibility, hidden at the bottom of his clothes chest in his house. "Is it trapped?" asks Baylock. Hesmar scoffs. "I wouldn't want to kill the cat," he says. This distracts Baylock from traps, and he exact a list of residents (the cat and two girlfriends, Rock and Roll!) and a sketch of the house from him; forgetting to come back to the chest and any traps.

Hesmar's House, Minensal, 6th December 2100, Midnight

Baylock and Talian carefully case the house, a nice townhouse on the edge of the Wealthy quarter. One upstairs room has a light on, which they avoid. Baylock goes in through the back while Talian keeps watch.
Baylock finds a very expensively-decorated interior, some interesting odds and ends, some papers probably received from Lihard, and the cat, which watches him with interest. It is, however, not a magical cat.
Upstairs, he finds the bard's room and searches it. It is packed with musical instruments, a small collection of nice but unmagical weapons, clothes and makeup. The chest at the foot of the bed is full of more clothes, but clearly has a false bottom. Baylock probes this, then flinches sideways on instinct as a spiked frame crashes down, neatly fitting into the chest - but for his speed, he would have been too. Prising it out, he finds the ring and a few other interesting things.
He exits the house, saying Goodbye to the cat, and he and Talian reach the street - just as a massive explosion of flame lights up the whole city - and two huge reptilian shapes soaring above it. The pair scatter instantly and without hesitation, Baylock slaps the ring onto his finger.
Meanwhile, back at the Cheese, Baggy and Chambu have received a mystic dream from Bahamut. Baggy has been storming the heavens for an answer to her doubts, and the dream answers her prayers, though also giving her more to worry about. It ends in a sharp warning; "Ware the skies!" and the pair start awake as the dragons hit the city.
Skadunir and Mornaeros are effectively the draconic equivalent of a pair of rowdy teenagers, who've come to blow things up and look for loot where older and wiser dragons might have hesitated. Taking it in turns, they swoop and dive, selecting juicy targets to blast with flames and occasionally smash with claws or tail. The noise is deafening; shouting, screaming, crashing and burning.

DM Note: Allan did point out that, in 1st Edition AD&D, "Warrior" is the level title for a 2nd level Fighter and suggested that this didn't apply to the PCs. This earned XP for roleplaying a character with the Craven feat but was discounted!

An authoritative voice rises above the din, “All warriors to the walls! All warriors to the walls!” The party have various reactions to this, but ultimately realize that it's time for all to work together. Every able-bodied fighter and caster is hurrying to the defence, with civilians taking shelter where they can. Even the rather discredited Dragon Hunters' Guild is conspicuous by their presence on the walls, armed with missile weapons and long lances. The ballistae on the walls begin to swivel, though the duality of targets seems to blur their effectiveness.

Averse to missiles as dishonourable, Baggy turns her considerable ability as a leader to organizing and assisting the civilians. As the attack goes on, she finds herself leading an impromptu search and rescue team and directing three more. Once, she mistimes it, and Skadunir swoops in and envelops her in fire. All the civilians and rescue workers with her are killed, but she survives with her proud insignia scorched and sooty.
Talian scales a bell-tower and snipes from cover. With his swift spells and sneak attack capabilities, he delivers significant damage, until one of the dragons notices and smashes the tower, sending Avenger and rubble cascading into the street. Only frantic use of Tumble saves his neck, leaving him battered and smouldering on a heap of broken masonry.
Baylock does much the same - from ground level - moving after every shot, restoring his Invisibility when there is a chance as the dragons soar for height between dives. He's rather alarmed to realize that the dragons can actually locate him without having to see him at all!
Dragon Attack!
Chambu experiments with several spells; Summoning is ineffectual as the Air Elemental is too small to affect the dragons. Oddly, Flame Strike does rather better as half the damage is Holy. He ponders Create Water but abandons it as too hard to target. Holy Smite proves his best resource, and he hurls several skywards to screams of draconic pain and fury. He also patches up the battered Baggy and Talian.
The latter returns to the Happy Cheese, through streets of utter chaos, flame and destruction. "How's it going?" asks Nazarial innocently as the blackened, bloody, exhausted Avenger enters the shop. After a drink and a little time, he forays out again.
Finally, Baylock gets the right angle, and drives two well-placed shafts into Mornaeros' left wing. The male dragon spirals down and crashes on top of Lyrroth the Silversmith's shop, utterly destroying it and all the sheltering occupants. Coiling and thrashing in the wreckage, he blasts fire in all directions, while Skadunir circles above shrieking in distress.
This is Baggy's moment. Summoning Binky McBinky, she vaults to the saddle, sliding the lance from its saddle scabbard as she does so. Most of the others converge on the location, though Baylock is in a different part of the city.
Talian drives more arrows into the downed monster, while Chambu throws another Holy Flamestrike upward to keep the enraged Skadunir off.
With a thunder of hooves, the draconic warhorse of Bahamut enters the smashed area, effortlessly galloping across the rubble as Baggy lowers the point of her lance and takes aim. As she passes, Chambu casts with impeccable timing and creates an instantaneous area of Prayer in just the right place for Baggy to pass through on her way to strike. Just as Mornaeros is preparing to flame Chambu to a greasy smut, the silver lance-head drives in at the back of his skull. It goes so deep the Paladin has to let go of it or snap it as she thunders past. She whirls the horse for another attack, but it's not needed; Mornaeros is as dead as stone.
With a scream that shatters windows and splits stone, Skadunir soars straight upwards, shrieking oaths of dreadful vengance on the slayer of her mate. Baylock sees her go and sends arrows after her, but she rockets up into the low clouds and is gone.
Silence, broken only by the moaning of the burned and wounded, the crackle of innumerable fires and the occasional crash of toppling buildings, falls on Minensal.
In the Happy Cheese, Lynlir the wrymling tilts her head sideways, as if listening to a distant voice. "Oh!" she says, "that's how it works!" Her form shimmers and reshapes itself into that of a human child.

Session Date: 28^th September 2021