Episode 3

On recovering from their previous encounter, our adventurers set out to the dragon's tomb, following the map Valthrun had sketched out for them.

The remainder of the journey was uneventful, and around mid afternoon they approached the tomb. They expected a burial mound, but found an excavation site.

In the centre of the site a ring of skulls were exposed, and the skeleton of a medium sized dragon was visible. The excavation was rimmed with steep slopes of loose gravel and scree. The group approached the gentle slope of a broad path that spiralled down to the lowered ground level of the site.

There was no sign of Douven Staul. Around the site they could see several human workers in dusty clothing and a grey-skinned gnome in leather armour. Across the shallow crater a halfling keeping watch. A pair of giant lizards, guard drakes, sat alert on the side of the descending path, and watched the approaching heroes attentively.

Although there were digging implements lying around, noone was digging; it seems like the group were packing up. Backpacks, blankets, and other equipment was piled in a heap against the far crater wall, and a small wood crate sat nearer the centre of the dig.

The halfling lookout watched the party approaching, and as they stepped onto the downward path the gnome approached and greeted the group.

He seemed friendly enough and explained that he knew Douven, who was helping with the excavation but wasn't there at present. The group was suspicious but the gnome invited the party over to see a recently unearthed treasure, and led the way back down to the bottom level of the site.

Flinch, who had hung back at the top of the crater, noticed the gnome give a small hand signal to site workers, who surreptitiously started picking up nearby wood clubs. She called a warning to the rest of her group, and Walf drew his sword just as the gnome, who had been walking faster and faster, called an attack command over his shoulder.

The drakes quickly leaped forward to attack the nearest target - Walf - their bites hurting him severely.

• Flinch loosed an arrow at the halfling but missed
• The gnome fired a crossbow bolt at Xagoth but missed
• Aravin fired an acid arrow at a drake attacking Walf, doing some damage
• Flinch fired two arrows at the drakes, one hitting the acid-damanged drake
• the halfling used his sling to cast three stones in quick succession, hitting Xagoth and Flinch but missing Aravin
• the two drakes again attacked Walf, and while one's teeth ground on his armour, the other found a chink and the savagery of the bite threw Walf to the ground.
• Dexter's sly dagger found the tender skin of a drake's underbelly, Bloodying it. The other drake remains unharmed.
• Walf was now dying
• Xagoth blasted a Diabolic Grasp at the unharmed drake, injuring it and pushing it back over the edge of a gravel slope
• on of the human workers ran alongside the gnome, the rest of the rabble attacking Xagoth with their clubs. Xagoth took a couple of heavy hits.
• the gnome fired his crossbow at Flinch, but missed
• Aravin's freezing cloud caught a drake and two of the human rabble, wounding the lizard and killing the humans.
• Flinch's twin arrowshots kill another human and the heavily wounded drake.
• the halfling flung a stone at Flinch but missed
• the drake Xagoth knocked down the slope scrabbled at the loose gravel, making it some of the way up the slope
• Dexter knelt next to his gravely wounded friend Walf, trying to stem the flow of blood from his bite wounds
• Xagoth joins Dexter and together they manage to keep Walf from slipping into death
• the sole surviving human attacker stays behind his boss the gnome on the other side of the excavation crater
• the gnome finally lands a crossbow shot, on Aravin
• Aravin responds with a thunderwave, killing the human and wounding the gnome for the first time
• Flinch's arrows strike the gnome and halfling, Bloodying the gnome and wounding the halfling, who responds with a hail of stones, two of which strike Flinch
• the surviving drake scabbles to the top of the slope and bites the first arse it sees -- Dexter's. Dex immediately summons his reserve strength to heal himself
• Xagoth scrambles around to attack the drake from behind, wounding the creature with a warlocks curse
• the gnome, desperate and angry, charges at Aravin with his warpick, but stumbles and misses completely.
• Aravin is so contemptuous of the gnome he is now toe-to-toe with that his cloud of daggers descends on the drake instead, killing the lizard
• Flinch breaks the point off one of her arrows, and fires that one at the gnome, knocking him unconscious. her second attack kills her halfling nemesis.

In the aftermath of the battle Dexter managed to purloin a few coins from his friend Walf while the fighter was unconscious.

Dexter also found a locket on the unconscious gnome, which he slipped into his pocket.

Flinch added the drake tails and the halfling's long hair braid to her trophy collection.

Aravin threw aside the blankets piled against the crater wall, discovering a bound, gagged captive. This turned out to be Douven Staul, who described how the gnome's group had arrived at the burial site the day after Douven had, and immediately taken him prisoner. He was forced to assist them in their search for some kind of ancient relic.

The group had just found the item they searched for that afternoon, and were packing up when the lookout had warned of the heroes' approach. At that point Douven had been gagged and shoved under the blankets.

By the time Douven had told his story, Walf was on his feet and strode over to greet his old friend and mentor. When Walf saw the condition Douven was in, he turned aside wordlessly and delivered a heavy kick to the neck of the gnome lying nearby. The sounds of bone breaking spoke to his anger at the gnome's treatment of his friend. Then Walf and Douven embraced and Douven told most of his story a second time.

Meanwhile Xagoth woke the gnome with a stream of urine across his face. On interrogation the gnome revealed little; his name was Agrid, he ran the dig for someone.. but then Dexter volunteered to have a go at questioning.

Dexter knelt alongside the gnome and spoke quietly in his ear. Occasionally his dagger did a bit of business, but everyone was surprised when Dex rose to his feet with a new crop of information. Agrid, Dexter reported, was working for Kalarel, a cult leader who worshipped Orcus.

Aravin identified Orcus as a fairly typical Demon Lord from the Shadowfell -- a dimension bordering on ours -- who had in the past made connections to our realm. Orcus is, Aravin noted, a perennially popular choice for cult worship.

Dexter returned again to the prisoner, but this time when he stood, he had no further information, and Agrid was dead.

The rest of the group were a little quiet at this performance from Dexter, but eventually conversation resumed and Douven mentioned a locket Argid had stolen. Dexter reluctantly volunteered the locket he had found, and Douven was thankful enough to give the locket immediately back to Dexter, after removing the picture of his wife from inside. Douven explained that the locket grants magical protections to the wearer.

The team then decided to return to Winterhaven.

In Winterhaven the group visited Lord Padraig, who didn't fall for the drake's tails or pay for the halfling's braid. He was very interested in the cult information. This time Dexter didn't join the official visiting party; instead he roamed the manorhouse in a more informal, uninvited capacity, checking for signs of Padraig himself being involved with the cult. He uncovered some juicy domestic scandals but no sign of cult worship.

At the inn that evening Dexter shouted his friend Walf a drink with Walf's own money.

Later the group trooped upstairs to knock on Ninaren's door. The door was barred from the inside, but with no sign of anyone inside. Walf and Dexter headed to the back of the inn to see if they could look into her window. They broke into the inn's small courtyard and Walf boosted Dexter into Ninaren's open window. They avoided detection initially and Dexter was able to unbar the door and let the rest of the group in to the room (but not before taking Ninaren's small coin supply for himself).

A warm candle in the room appeared to indicate that someone was recently in residence, but there was no additional information for the group.

Walf got caught loitering around in the courtyard by the inn's cook, but she didn't notice the breakin and just shooed him away, assuming he was a lost drunk.

Unfortunately Sylvana the innkeep took exception to the group's stamping about, and banned them from the inn. The group distributed themselves about the village for their night's rest. Aravin was able to monitor the inn throughout his Eladrin resting meditation, and did not see Ninaren returning to the inn any time that night.

The next morning the group decided to travel to the second of their known destinations -- the "cult base" Ninaren had told them about.