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The Tale of the Shadow Dragon
28th Day of Winter’s Night, 8 AC
After choosing to travel with Red and Regar back to Hill Home, the faithful heroes anticipated another encounter with the Shadow Dragon. What they did not expect was the Dragon’s anticipation of their return. As they neared the Dragon’s lair, Caprica felt something touch her foot. The party, feeling imminent attack, drew their arms and moved forward into the cavern. The darkness seemed to creep into the torch light and devour the light entirely. Fortunately, Obito recognized the spell and was able to inform the others that they were enveloped in magical darkness. Unfortunately, the dragon’s power splashed the liquid darkness over nearly half the cavern. Obito and Skyleaf moved forward into the darkness. Suddenly, unearthly bodies seemed to emerge from the milky black and attack. While some of the party was able to resist these illusions, Caprica and the Dwarves were all tied up in a battle with the illusions of the dragon. Sir Kenneth bellowed, “They are nothing more than dust and wind, do not believe!” As soon as she had freed herself of the illusionary foe, Caprica began chanting, hoping that Kiri-Jolith may aid them against the evil beast.
Meanwhile, Obito had finally scouted the edge of the Dragon’s darkness and now looked up to see the great serpent perched near the opening in the top of the cavern. Taking immediate interest in the Kender, the dragon subtly chanted under his breath. Obito, recognizing a caster’s chant, dove for cover. He barely managed to avoid the shards of ice crashing onto the stone he had just stood upon. Calling out, Obito let the party know there was an edge to the darkness. Hearing this, Skyleaf ran forward and broke through the perimeter of the darkness. Looking up, he watched as the Dragon took to the air. He drew the only Dragon Slayer arrow from his quiver. Knocking his bow, Skyleaf took aim and released. Unfortunately, the Dragon buffeted the arrow with her wing at the last moment and the arrow soared harmlessly into the night. Firing twice more in frustration, Skyleaf landed the next two shots and managed to entice the dragon to land. While bringing the dragon to the ground gave others the opportunity to help in the battle, the dragon also took the opportunity to use its breath weapon.
Kenneth and the dwarves suffered full effect and were temporarily weakened. Skyleaf had just avoided the blast and was able to tumble and leap toward the dragon’s back. Thrusting his sword in, Skyleaf managed to gain a grip and keep his place between the serpent’s wings. Obito managed to draw the thrashing Dragon’s attention off Skyleaf, shouting, “Hey Dragon! I hear your mother was a Wyvern!” At the same moment, Caprica was releasing her chant, and rushed forward. As she pushed out of the envelope of darkness, she saw the desperation of the fight and began calling on Kiri-Jolith to assist her comrades: Skyleaf, Obito and Kenneth. Kenneth, whom had just risen to assist in the battle, swung and hit the dragon. By the strength of Kenneth’s blow, it was obvious that the breath weapon had taken a toll on the noble knight. The Dragon rushed from rock to rock pursuing the Kender, Obito. His continued taunting had enraged the great worm and it was crashing madly around the caves as the ninja tried to avoid a painful death. Finally, Skyleaf thrust his sword into the dragon causing it to reel in pain. With a thrust of its wings, the dragon tossed everyone but Skyleaf aside and took to the air through the hole in the ceiling of the cavern. Holding fast as he watched the ground disappear below, Skyleaf looked ominously at the Long sword which flew free in his hand with the wind. Then, with full force of will, he thrust the sword a bit further up the back of the Dragon. The Beast roared with pain and began to barrel roll in the night sky and then climbed as if reaching for the heavens themselves. Using his swords as handles, Skyleaf displayed the nimbleness of legend as he climbed the dragon’s back one sword blow at a time. Suddenly the Dragon let out a cry and a controlled climb quickly turned into a spin. Heavens… Earth… Heavens… Earth… They spun past Skyleaf’s eyes so quickly he lost his sense of equilibrium and was thrown into the winds. Floating for a moment, he saw the dragon’s wing swinging toward him and everything went black. With the help of the Ninja Obito’s skills, the party was able to climb to where Skyleaf and the Dragon had crashed to the ground. Finding skyleaf alive but badly injured, Obito helped him use a healing potion. Finally, the party marveled at the Dragon carcass which was slowly wasting away in the growing dawn.
Factual Notes:
- The dragon entered a flat spin after Skyleaf dealt enough damage to make it grow unconscious. This resulted in a slowed decent
- The wing which knocked skyleaf unconscious actually knocked him upward and changed the angle of his fall enough so he did not directly impact the ground but rather rolled on impact removing the force of “terminal velocity”
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