Endymion crouched in the passage. Just outside the door, the blades of the trap room whrrd through the night, gyrating in slow, deadly arcs. The room was cramped for four people to sleep in. Tyrion stood guard just outside the chamber, along with Nightsong. Fortunately, nothing disturbed their fitful rest in the underground chamber.
The next morning Milo ventured back the way they
came up to the surface to see to the camels and to Tyrion and Gallaron's elven
servant. Endymion decides to join the sellswords of the Duke down the passage
past the lair of the giant lizard creatures they had fought the previous night.
He wonders at the wisdom of this, with the brown 'dragon' yet to be found, but
these two sellswords had proven their mettle in battle time and time again.
They discovered a passage sloping up. The drow
Tyrion ventured up to peer over the ledge where a faint light emitted. At the
bottom, safely out of view, Endymion and Gallaron quietly traded jokes about
what could lay ahead. The drow went still as stone at the top of the ledge, then
scurried his way back. None noticed the slight shower of gravel he kicked free
with his rapid descent, though he was not pursued. He began claiming to have
seen the 'dragon' up there, as well as another scaled lizard-like man and a
third giant lizard guarding a cavernous furnished room. The room was decorated
with drapes on the walls, sconces burning brightly, and a pair of locked chests
shoved against the side wall. In one corner, a scaled and feathered winged
creature was chained to the wall. In another corner, the lizard-like man turned
a spit with a roasting sheep. In the center, a shaft of daylight brightly
illuminated a brown, winged lizard the size of a man, but with a smooth scaled
body suggesting speed, power, and grace.
Endymion and Gallaron dismissed his tale of this
'dragon'. “The light played tricks on you – did you see it move? I'm sure it was
nothing but a statue, carved of stone.” Other theories were bantered about, but
they all agreed to a simple course of action. They would sneak up the ledge to
see for themselves, all together.
Unfortunately, the brown 'dragon' was waiting for
them, and spoke to them in their own common tongue. It was haughty and sly,
supremely confident in itself. It challenged them to come in, and stop skulking
about, that they were granted audience to see Denith. The dragon conversed,
asking for their names – which Gallaron gladly provided, though Tyrion demured
and Endymion pretended to not understand by a ruse of speaking only Elven. Talk
was made of their intrusion upon her domain, slaughter of her guards – and her
taking of sheep that did not belong to her. That surely there would be
consequences, even over mere sheep. The debate grew heated and tiresome,
bordering on insulting, and Denith with a quiet command ordered her allies to
attack Tyrion, Gallaron, and Endymion.
Surprised, they were barely able to resist the
sudden assault. The dragon turned into a whirlwind of sand, blinding Endymion
with her passage. Fortunately Tyrion unlocked another power of the Amulet of
passage and banished the dragon, who abruptly vanished for a space of time –
enough for the rest of the party and the blind Endymion to retreat out of
Denith's lair. Tyrion and Endymion, who recovered his sight, laid down a thicket
of earthen roots and twisting vines to block the passage and slow their
pursuers, but the dragon reappeared and teleported past every entangling root
and vine.
It was bloody. Endymion fell, was shaken back to
his senses by Tyrion, and then the half-elf fled down the corridor with
surprising speed as he was suddenly in fear of his life. For a moment, Tyrion
and Gallaron faced the dragon alone, while Endymion's vines and earthen roots
continued to ensnare and prevent the dragon's henchmen from joining the fray.
By Tyrion's sharp arrows and Gallaron's blades,
the dragon was finally slain. After the dragon, the rest of Denith's henchmen
were easy to mop up. They tried to take the lizard-like humanoid captive, but
Gallaron's blade slipped at the last instant and ended its life.
Venturing into Denith's lair, now much more
cautious after such a fierce battle, they looted the chests (one which turned
out to be a mimic!) and Endymion pacified the Dragonhawk chained to the far
wall. The dragonhawk proved to be a flying mount, complete with bridle and
saddle. But before Endymion had a chance to try and fly it, they were
interrupted once more.
A second party of adventurers arrived at the
scene: A dwarf, an elf, and a human. And a third elf, bound and gagged and
dragged behind them, significantly roughed up: Milo.
“Does this belong to you?” Asked the dwarf.
Tyrion and Gallaron were quick to deny so, but
Endymion was equally quick to say “Yes. He is under my protection.” with all the
cool authority he could muster.
A lively discussion ensued, as the dwarf tried to
determine their business here, and the party asked the same of the dwarf and his
party. Milo apparently had been subdued trying to prevent these three from
entering, to 'protect his friends.'
“And you tied him up for this?” Asked Endymion in
surprise.
“We could have killed him.” Reminded the
dwarf.
Too true.
Eventually the dwarf was won over, after Tyrion
and Gallaron proved they were the Duke's heroes (much to Endymion's surprise –
he thought they were sellswords) and Endymion sealed the deal with promise of
ale for the dwarf, which Milo may or may not have on his camel. He did not, but
as luck would have it, the dwarf had become very companionable by the time they
had managed to walk back to the camels, and did not mind so much the mistake.
The dwarf and his company proved to be part of a
group known as 'Second Sons', and their trade was to conduct a secret warfare
against the plots of dragons, tracking and slaying them when reports of them
surfaced. They were tracking this wyrmling that Tyrion's party had stumbled
upon. After conversing over a meal and learning of the second sons, the two
groups agreed to travel together back to the Duke's kingdom now that the
sheep-mauling menace was over, and report their findings. So ends this tale...
until next time.
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