PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 23 - Journey to the Lost Peaks

Day 67 - In the Clutches of the Dragon Cult

The Owlbear League was in the prison cages of the Cult of the Dragon, split up two each with Seraphina in her cage with a stranger, a drow with short-cropped hair and scars across his face. Their packs were taken away from them, along with their visible weapons, and their captors, the dark adepts of the cult of the dragon mill about, seeming not to know what to do next.

"Hmmmm" Silakul considers, continuing his stroll before the cages. He stops in front of the cage where he seems to notice K'ronk for the first time. "Look all, a Dovahkiin, most inferior of those who are the blessed dragonkind. Not even a half-dragon bred from the glorious seed of a true dragon, they are broken from the dragon bloodlines. They are not even a mule in the family of dragons, they are the spilled seed of draconic glory, cast out from the true majesty of dragonkind. False dragons - Fikudovah!" and he spits on the floor at the end of his rant.

The little halfling cackles with delight.

"Claw, you annoy me. Cultists! Bring their packs to my chambers, then back to work! Dretchroyaster must be attended. His feeding must not be stopped. If you do not have the next batch of soluent prepared, I will feed you to his pet! Claw! Stand watch over these "lost souls" as I ponder what to do with them in my chamber. I would ask Dretchroyaster himself if he was not otherwise entertained.

A few moments pass and the drow in the cage with Seraphina begins to talk. He is quite a fright, peeling and scarred, not the normal haughty look of the drow she had come across. The drow speaks common, but in an accent they are unfamiliar - likely from the underdark. "Ay mates, ya have to be crackers to let the cult walk you into a cell, you all wacker?"

Seraphina replies "No, it seemed like a good idea at the time though. My name is Seraphina, and you are...?"

The drow replies "The name's Stryke. Ya have a plan? Bust out a here? I'll buy you all corker if ya can help me escape."

Looking to her companions who are whispering to one another as she replies "not sure yet, but we're working on it. Clinker, you have any daggers?" wondering what weapons they have at their disposal.

Clinker replies "Yup, enough for all of us if ya need 'em." in his charming drawl.

Seraphina continues the conversation. "How did you wind up here?"

"Yeah, normally I'd tell ya to mind ya bizzo, maybe give ya the flick, but you're me only hope outta here - struth! The short version is I was sent by my masters to see what this dragon cult was up to. They've been crawlin around in the Lost Peaks and we squeezed one of the Jackaroo for some 'telly on their goin's on. I got in, gave em the bully that I was all galah for the dead dragon and they walked me right in. Not barely a question before I was in the party, the stupid ponzers. Sorry Sheila. Then I saw this diamond staff they'd nippered, tried to grab it, but it shocked the chokkie out a me. They must a found me passed out on the floor' then locked me up, worked me over a bit, but they're letting me get well before another round. Now, I just want ta get out a here, get me some tucker and a boozie."

"Aye, there's a few ways we could walkabout. If we can get out of the cages, we can head right out the front door, the entrance is off the temple in the next room, but the bonker cultists are usually praying in there. There's a trap too, but you just have to stay low in the corridor out.

The other way is to the north. When they were working me over in the next room, called it the Chamber of Screams, but it's Furphy. Might a been a torture chamber once, but now they just store their swag in it. I was chained up for a bit in there though, I had a date with a cat-a-nine tails. Did some howlin too to make a good show of it, but the jackaroo Claw don't know what he's doing. Threw out a few screams and he backed off, krikey, I've been on worse dates before. Anywhat, there's a grate in the floor and water running underneath. Either that one or this grate here, although the lot have been pissing down it. Literal shitshow I tell ya. I'm not sure where it heads, but I got a glance to the east, so might be good. Or we drown - aces!

Otherwise, north is the big boomer's crib, Silakul. He never has guards posted in the torture room, thinks he's hot chockie, but not sure what is in his room."

Orryn makes a "shhhh" sound as Claw returns from up the stairs to the east. He's chewing on a piece of meat and has a tankard of ale, but says nothing as he props himself back on his crate. While focusing on his food, K'ronk casts a spell of charm person upon Claw, then calls out to him. "Claw, it's me, K'ronk, get us out of here!"

"K'ronk, I did not recognize you before. What are you doing here? Silakul is not someone to trifle with!" Claw tells him.

"My friends and I need to be let out of the cages, we need to escape. There's a big misunderstanding, you know me." K'ronk says.

"Yes, but I can't let everyone free. Silakul will feed me to the dracolich. I can let you out though. Just you. We have to hurry though, the master will be back soon."

Claw brings the key over towards the cage where K'ronk and Nowhere are housed. "I have to tie her hands though, or she may try to escape." He takes the leather thong off the key. "Put your hands through the bars!" Claw snaps at Nowhere. Wanting to let the plan unfold, she complies, Claw tying her hands on either side of a vertical metal bar. Then, Claw opens the cage and releases K'ronk, locking the pen behind him.

"Now quickly, head up through the entrance room. There will be acolytes praying, but just head to the right. Keep your head low, the way is trapped with a blade about three feet off the floor." Claw tells him.

"Can't you do anything for my friends?" K'ronk asks.

"No, Silakul would be furious." Claw says. "Go!"

With that, K'ronk starts heading up the stairs, casting spider climb on himself. As he climbs the wall and looks into the next room, he sees that at least a dozen cultists in grey robes are kneeling on the red tile floor, praying to their dragon god, likely the dracolich they have learned of - Dretchroyaster. He makes his way back down the stairway, but upside down on the ceiling, silently positioning himself above Claw in the corner of the room.

"Are you going to untie me?" Nowhere asks.

"Bother, bother!" replies Claw, but he hops down from his crate, leaving his food and tankard behind. "Don't you try anything - they key is over there." He says as he walks over to Nowhere and starts untying her, but she quickly spins him around and uses the leather thong as a garrote and strangles him. Claw is completely surprised, and though he struggles and squirms and beats at her hands, he is quickly unconscious and Nowhere continues her stranglehold to make sure that he is indeed dead.

K'ronk descends the wall and gathers the key from Claw, unlocking the cages and releasing The League and the drow named Stryke. "Good job" the drow says. Nowhere then speaks to her deep gnome friend "Clinker, knives." Clinker sighs and more than a half dozen fancy daggers appear in his hands from within his vest. He takes a look at the drow before handing over one of the more pedestrian knives and states "I want this back drow!"

"Sure enough!" Stryke replies.

Orryn is pulling at the grating on the floor, and it lifts to show a cave below with a body of water within. It does not smell pleasant. "Claw." he says, and with that his companions pull the body towards the hole and dump it down.

"What's our move?" Dain asks.

"We still have to get that staff." Nowhere says, several of them nodding. "If Silakul has one of the idols, we need it."

From over by the grating, Stryke tells them. "You fella's have fun, that's not my fight. I appreciate the help though." and with that he drops to the cavern below with a splash.

"I knew I was never going to get that knife back." Clinker replies, then he walks over to the crate where Claw sat, takes his tankard and quaffs it down.

"Damn, I was going to drink that" states Dain.

"Let's see what the storage room looks like." Nowhere states.

They march though a short hallway north, and indeed, if the next room was a torture chamber, it has mostly fallen into disuse. The walls are piled high with boxes and barrels, and only a chair, chained to the floor, remains to be used for unsavory activities. There is a grate in this room too, and the sound of running water can be heard from below. On the north side is a wide stair upwards that ends in a narrow but heavy door. Silakul's chamber.

Orryn suggests they lie in wait, hidden in the storage room, until Silakul returns, then take him by surprise. The others agree and take various hidden positions around the room. Luckily, they don't have long to wait, some ten or fifteen minutes later, Silakul opens the door to his chambers and descends the stairs. At the bottom, the League attacks.

Each one attacks with their daggers and their spells and before long Silakul stands bleeding in fury. He calls out "Guardians! Defend me!" as he casts inflict wounds on Seraphina, who writhes in agony, but his victory is shortlived as Nowhere lands the killing bow with a borrowed dagger, ending his life.

Their battle is not over though. From out of the door at the top of the stairs comes six skeleton warriors, tattered bits of flesh and sinew hanging from their bones. They attack and battle with The League, but that is not all. As The League fights the skeletons one by one, another creatures appears at the top of the stairs. A nightmare of reanimated body pars, covered in scars and seemingly put together haphazardly - a flesh golem.

Orryn kills the last skeleton with a dagger, then K'ronk hits the flesh monster with a fire bolt spell, driving it even crazier with fire terror. Dain grabs a torch and smashes the golem with it, the monster now howling.

Clinker calls out from the top of the stairs, "Nowhere! Seraphina!" and as they turn to him, he throws their weapons, Icerazor and Lightbringer to them.

Empowered with magical weapons, and dodging the flailing attacks of the flesh golem, The Owlbear League concentrates their fighting on the golem unleashing flame spells, fire bolts and magical weapon attacks. Suddenly, without warning, the fire-tormented abomination breaks for the exit and runs south and the only way it can go - up the stairs.

The team tries to kill it on the run with more fire bolts and sacred flames, but it races away - flesh on fire, and moments later the sounds of fighting can be heard up in the entry to the dungeons.

"Drop the gate." Nowhere says, and K'ronk is happy to pull the lever that drops the iron grate, locking anyone out of the storage room. "Dain, throw Silakul down the grating." The burly dwarf barbarian quickly does so.

"To Silakul's room." she orders, and the Owlbear League ascends the stairs to Silakul's chambers, closing the door behind them.

The room is lit by torches, ancient carvings of daggers dripping blood mark the upper walls of this lush chamber. A beautiful and intricate foldable room divider is painted with the image of a red dragon destroying a city. To the west of the divider stand a large bed, an oak chest, a dresser, and a desk. A pile of the Owlbear League's belongings leans against the east wall, and each gathers their things. To the north is a heavy double door, to the east is another doorway, shaded in darkness.

"Can I have my daggers back?" Clinker asks, and his companions comply.

Orryn investigates the dresser, finding mostly clothing, but then towards the back of one of the drawers, he pulls out one of the figures they are looking for - the keys to disarming the protection on the diamond staff. The others are enthused, but not sure how they will find the other keys, especially since a rampaging flesh golem is now alerting the others that something is very wrong in the lair of the dracolich.

Nowhere checks the chest, but as soon as she touches it, it explodes with fire, booby-trapped with magical energy. Nowhere is knocked unconscious, but her resistance to flame lessens the blow, otherwise she might have been killed. Seraphina cures wounds on the tiefling, reviving her magically. The others look in the chest finding an ornate dagger that Clinker asks for, as well as a

"We need a plan." Nowhere states while getting back to her feet, and for several minutes they debate, including barricading themselves in this chamber until the next day. But suddenly, a voice calls from the gates they dropped by the jail cells.

"Silakul! Master! We need your help. There are worshippers who have been hurt!"

Quickly, Kronk casts an illusion upon himself, becoming the cultist master Silakul. He steps down into the stairway where he can be seen from a distance.

"I was attacked too - I need some time to recover. I will be a few minutes. Gather some of your fellows and come back to this gate."

"Yes, Master!" one of the group calls out, and they race off, their gray robes trailing behind.

The League scrambles for a plan. They are unsure whether to press on to the room with the Diamond Staff, understanding it is at least partially protected and they only have two of the idols. There are other doors to try, but they are nervous about the alerted cultists. As they talk, more cultists bang on Silakul's door. "Master, we need you, there are several of The Order hurt and killed."

Although nerve-racking, the door is clearly barred, so they cannot enter, and K'ronk calls out in his magically disguised voice. "I will be out when I can. I have been attacked also and need a minute to gather my strength. " The voices on the other side of the wall grow silent.

"A dozen men guarding the room and this pile of gold." he tells them.

"Gold?" Clinker asks.

"It's too big a pile to be real. Some sort of illusion." K'ronk says. "I say we head back south and hit them at the gate." The others think about it a minute and agree. "I can take Seraphina as 'prisoner' and blast the cultists".

"Why don't we head towards the gold?" Clinker asks.

"Because we could be trapped - we at least know there is an exit to the south." Nowhere states.

Clinker seems miffed, but remains quiet.

K'ronk casts an illusion on himself to look like Silakul, voice and all, and "walks" Seraphina with her hands behind her back towards the iron gate they have lowered between the supply room and the prison cells. There are several cultists waiting at the gates, some of them looking beat up, as if they were in a fight with a flesh golem. As K'ronk and Seraphina approaches, K'ronk speaks out. "I have taken this halfling prisoner. The other intruders are still at large." Suddenly, Seraphina's hands are free and she casts a flame touch spell, targeting the cultists on the other side of the gates.

The cultists scream as flames sear their skin and set their robes alight. Some cry "master!" as they run up the stairs towards the entrance. Three drop dead along the way.

With the cultists gone, but likely warning the others, K'ronk calls for the League to come down the stairs and they raise the gate with the pulley on their side of the room. They then follow the path of the fleeing cultists, up the stairs to the entryway.

The room is covered in red tiles, and an only slightly defaced mosaic that originally reflected the worship of Baal. Blood has been spilled on the floor, and four cultists lay dead, their bodies covered with gray cloaks, but laid in an orderly manner along one wall. Cool air is blowing in from the entrance to the south, where there is a grisly scene. The flesh golem found the end of its life here, cut in two by a hidden blade trap - it's body is cut in two, but it's magically animated corpse is still twitching in lifelessness. There is still a bit of light outside, but the day is long, night almost near.

They listen to the two doors in the room, one seems to have several cultists on the other side, arguing what to do. The other has a man singing, and the sound of chopping going on - likely a cook. With no obvious way to go, the group gathers to form a plan. All but K'ronk returns to the storage room and hides there, ready to spring an attack.

Giving them some time, K'ronk then opens the door to the cultist dining hall. "Cult of the dragon! I have trapped the intruders. Gather your weapons and follow me!" The cultists scramble to do their returned master's bidding as he marches back towards the prison cells and the storage room beyond. As they catch up to him, one of the priests asks "Master, how was the halfling female able to free their arms?"

"Magic - deceitful magic! But she is dead now."

As they reach the entry to the storage room, K'ronk in the form of Silakul turns. "The enemy is in my chambers. I will lead you, but first I will bless your weapons. Lay them on the floor."

As some of the cultists move to put down their arms, one of the priests says "Wait!" Then looks around. There is someone hiding behind that barrel, and he points to where the flickering light of a torch gives away Orryn's position. The ruse falters and the Owlbear League breaks from hiding and attacks. Their plan is able to give them the first attack, so Nowhere kills a cultist with Icerazor, Orryn with his rapier, Serpahina smashes one with Lightbringer. Atlas knocks one out with a series of lightning-fast blows. K'ronk casts firebolt and attacks with a dagger, but misses both. Dain destroys a cultist with his mighty battle axe. There are only a few cultisist left and the slash and hack at the heroes to little effect.

One of the cultist - a priest with the power of divine magic casts a command spell on the heroes, but it fails. Nowhere kills him with the combined strike, ice spiders and poison of her sword and the power of the Baalish idol she has in her possession. Seraphina misses another with Lightbringer, K'ronk fails to hit with firebolts or his staff, Dain rages at the few remaining cultists, but misses in his blind fury. One of the warriors strikes K'ronk with his sword and draws blood, and the remaining priest casts burning hands and wounds Atlas, but Nowhere ends the life of that cleric with her sword. Orryn hits with his rapier, Atlas kills him with his gauntlet-clad fists, K'ronk misses again with his dual attacks and Clinker surprises the last from behind and ends his life with a dagger attack.

There is disagreement, but the group decides to head back into the chambers of Silakul, dropping the gate behind them for protection. They consider holding up in the chambers overnight, but banging on the door of the chamber changes that plan. "Come out! Intruders, come out or we will torture you when we get our hands on you! You can leave now, unharmed."

The group does not believe this for a moment. More banging comes from the north - the guards of the treasure have been warned of the intruders and now they move to break down the door. The League prepares and lets them waste their strength on the heavy door.

When the moment arrives and they bust the portal open, K'ronk opens up a fury of lightning from his maw - the magical breath weapon of his draconic ancestry. It is even more powerful than before and several cultists fall immediately. The league stays put in the room while the cultists try arrows and slings, but the League quickly rushes to attack, Dain the Barbarian Dwarf at the lead. Quickly, several of the cultists fall, with the League only taking minor wounds, but the wear and tear is adding up, and they consume some healing potions to the worse for wear.

Clinker is deep in the room, standing below the 15 foot ledge where a pile of gold and coins seems to glow from the light of several torches. "I need a boost up." Clinker says.

Atlas provides his magical rope for Clinker and Orryn uses his boots of striding and springing to leap up to the ledge. Clinker gets to the top and plunges his hands in the treasure, which fills the ledge ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide. "It's real! It's real!" Clinker exclaims while Orryn seems silenced in awe.

Nowhere calls up to the gnome. "Fill your bag of holding, but hurry Clinker."

Both Clinker and Orryn spend several minutes pushing coin into the bag, but even when its magical space is full, it seems they have hardly made a dent, consuming maybe a sixth of the coins. Then Clinker starts filling his boots with coins. "Clinker! You'll be weighed down too much! What if we have to run or swim?" Nowhere cries.

"Just a bit more!" the treasure crazy gnome says.

Nowhere states "I think we have to. Stryke almost got it, and we are going to get beat down if we have to go through this whole damn complex to find the idols." The team agrees and they form a plan. Stealthily, they open the door to the chasm room again, the magical mists protecting the chamber peeling back in the presence of their idols. They group positions themselves close to each of the cult clerics without alerting them - their concentration focused on sending the magical energies of the staff down to whatever is at the bottom of the chasm.

Dain positions himself near one, Nowhere near another, Atlas near a third, and the rest of the League near the fourth one. Nowhere makes the move to start. She whips her not-insignificant tail at the priest near her, knocking him to the ground. Dain rushes into the back of another with his shield, sending him stumbling towards the chasm. Atlas uses the magical strength granted by his gauntlets of ogre power to grapple the third and starts carrying him towards the pit. Lastly, the smaller members of the team, Orryn, Seraphina, Clinker set themselves to trip the fourth cultist as K'ronk hits him from behind.

As Nowhere tries to drag her priest into the chasm, he dowses her in a sacred flame spell, but to little effect as Nowhere is resistant to fire from her infernal heritage and she throws him into the gap. The second casts a command spell on Atlas, but he shakes off the effect and throws him into the pit. The third casts inflict wounds on K'ronk and magically tears his scaly flesh open. K'ronk falls unconscious while Dain throws his priest into the chasm. The one remaining priest scrambles to get up but Clinker, Orryn and Seraphina attack and throw him into the chasm.

As Seraphina gives K'ronk a potion of healing, a great roar erupts from the depths. The magical energies of the staff have stopped flowing down to the dracolich, and it is not pleased with the disruption. Hundreds of feet down, the party sees immense glowing green skeletal wings and they are rising.

Quickly, Nowhere and Orryn place their idols on the two of the glowing pedestals, and the light from those pads extinguishes, dimming the light around the staff, but there are still two wards. Atlas reaches out with his magical rope of command and snatches the staff as it floats above the chasm. Suddenly, black necromatic energy flows out from the remaining wards and races up the rope. Atlas is thrown back, dark energy tearing at his flesh, and he releases his grip on the rope, which now hangs over the chasm, attached to the floating diamond staff. Atlas falls to the ground unconscious and Nowhere races over to give him one of the last healing potions they have. He is barely alive and the potion restores him to weak but conscious life.

From below, a great bellowing can be heard. It is a deep booming voice, yet as dry as a snake... The dracolich roars “Worms! Thieves! What have you done? You disrupt my power, but that will not save you!”

Knowing they only have moments to act before the dracolich reaches them, Dain ties a rope around himself and throws the other end to his companions. K'ronk, knowing his companion might fall into the chasm casts feather fall upon the dwarf. "Here goes!" he yells and makes a running leap towards the staff, reaching out and grabbing it.

Once again, black necromantic magic lances out from the two remaining circles protecting the staff. It blasts Dain's body and he spasms in the air from the jolt, but he maintains his grip and his consciousness and he sails over the chasm, crashing into the wall, as his body defies gravity from K'ronk's spell. With that, the group realizes they have what they need, and Nowhere yells "RUN!"

They race through the treasure room, into the chambers of Silakul, the dead cult leader. They are unable to bar the way, having let the cultists batter down the doors. They cross the room and open the lone door leading to the stairs descending to the storage room. At that moment, Dretchroyaster the dracolich clears the chasm behind them and howls "Worms! I will devour you!"

They crawl out the exit passage to avoid the waist-level blades, scrambling through the ichor from the destroyed flesh golem. They are out in the cool dark air, and take a second to breath and gather, but the howling of Dretchroyaster can still be heard, so they race off into the night, following the stream. They stay as silent as they can, taking one risk along the way - blowing their horn to call Lady D. from her nearby cave.

Within minutes she finds the League, and Orryn takes his place in the saddle and they race off into the dark woods. They look back from time to time to see the glowing skeleton of Dretchroyaster high in the sky, flying over the hills and grassland, trying to find them, but they stay silent and hidden and safe along the river, continuing until long into the night to put distance between themselves and the vault of the dracolich.

TOM TO CONTINUE WRITING UP:

• Reviving Immeral

• Sister G. reunion

WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL BEFALL OUR HEROES NEXT