The next morning, the party gathered with Varis to discuss their planned activities.
"We're going back into the forest to search for the dragon and its rider," Borovik said. "Will you come with us, Varis?"
"No," he sighed. "I have to get back to my duties with the Misty Forest patrols. And I have to inform Prince Alagarthas about Galin's betrayal."
"What do you think the Prince will do?" asked Kellen.
"I don't know," Varis replied sadly. "Galin's actions managed to save his own town but have put many other towns in danger of destruction. The Prince will have to make that decision, and I'm not wise enough to counsel him on this."
"Understood," Borovik nodded. Turning to the rest of the group, he said, "Let's go find Galin and tell him we're going into the forest, and he should tell the townsfolk we're looking for more clues to the identity of the dragon and the dragon's rider."
"I suggest we leave the horses here. I don't know how well they'll be able to travel through the forest underbrush," suggested Neega.
"Good idea," agreed Mara. "We should give the townsfolk some gold to pay for feeding and boarding them."
With that decided, they gathered their gear and informed Galin they were going out into the forest to find the dragon. Neega's Barbarian Outlander ability to remember terrain allowed her to lead them back to the clearing where Galin was in the habit of meeting the green dragon's rider. From there, they headed to the SE through the fog-filled forest.
After traveling for a couple of hours, they heard the crack of a tree falling over, followed by a woman crying out in pain. They ran over in the direction of the sound and found a large tree had fallen over onto an old woman, trapping her leg under it.
Seeing the party, the woman cried out, "Oww, my leg! Can you please help free me?"
They ran over to the tree. Mara assumed the Earth Elemental wildshape to make use of its strength. She and Neega took positions on either side of the woman. Kellen played his harp and gave Bardic Inspiration to the both of them to increase the chances that they could lift the tree enough for the woman to get her leg out. Talis and Frostbite came up alongside Mara to help. Borovik and Preston came up alongside Neega. With all their might, they attempted to lift the fallen tree. It rose about 2 ft. off the woman's leg.
"Crawl out, now!" called out Borovik.
But even as he said that the tree began to rise on its own and stood up. The woman also stood, and her leg had not been injured at all.
She smiled and addressed the group, "I am the Druid Valanthe and I guard this area of the Misty Forest. I instructed one of my awakened tree servants to fall over so I could pretend to be trapped and injured. This was to test if you would try to help. You did help, so I judge that you possess good hearts, and your intentions are noble. Receive my blessing."
Flowers began to magically appear in her hair, and as they did, she wove them into garlands and placed them around the necks of each one in the party.
"I sense that you seek the dragon and its rider who have been terrorizing the Misty Forest. These garlands will protect you from the dragon's Frightful Presence power when you meet him. Also, the dragon may have spies placed near its lair to warn the dragon of approaching strangers. The garlands will make you invisible to the spies."
"Thank you, kind Valanthe," Borovik bowed to her. "We suspect that the dragon's lair isn't far from here. And we suspect that its entrance is concealed by some sort of body of water. Are there any such bodies of water close by?"
"Yes," replied Valanthe. "About 25 miles or so to the SE is a waterfall, and there is an entrance to a cavern behind it. I've never had need of going into the cavern, but it could possibly lead into a space large enough to accommodate a dragon's lair."
With that, Valanthe assumed an owl wildshape and flew off. The awakened tree that had pretended to fall on her, as well as two others standing nearby, followed her into the forest.
Mara resumed the half-elf form and they continued on their way. Relying on Neega's Outlander skills to keep them pointed in the right direction, they made their way toward the SE. The denseness of the forest and the fog made it slow going, so by nightfall they had only gone about half the distance to the waterfall. Kellen cast Leomund's Tiny Hut and they camped for the night. Mara prayed to Mother Moon for good fortune, even though the dense forest canopy and fog prevented her from seeing the moon.
They spent the next day traveling through the forest. Since they still hadn't found the waterfall, they stopped to camp another night. Neega cast the Commune with Nature spell as a ritual to see if they were close enough to the waterfall for her to detect it. A bear spirit came to her, and she asked it if there was a waterfall within 3 miles of their camp. The bear spirit confirmed that there was, about 2 miles away. They had been traveling in roughly the right direction and would only require a slight change of direction to reach it. Neega asked if there were any dangerous creatures in the path. The bear spirit told her that there were a lot of giant spiders close to the waterfall.
The next morning, armed with the information provided by the bear spirit, they continued in the altered direction toward the waterfall. About the time they began to hear the sound of the waterfall, they also began to see strands of webbing stretching between the trees.
"Looks like we found the spiders," shuddered Bree. "How long before they find us?"
"Well, we don't want to get trapped in these webs and be sitting ducks when they find us. Let's see if we can burn through them," said Mara, as she cast Produce Flame.
She touched the flame in her hand to the suspended webbing. The strands contacted by the flame shriveled up and fell away, but they were moist, and the fire wouldn't spread to the rest of the webbing.
"Hmm," mused Kellen. "It looks like we're just going to have to burn small sections at a time to cut a path through the webs."
"I'll light a torch," said Preston. "That way the Mara and I can work on clearing the webs as we progress."
They continued through the webs toward the falls. The webbing got thicker the further they went. Birds and small animals had become trapped in the webbing. Their progress through the webbing alerted nearby giant spiders, and a couple dropped down into the midst of the party. One spider dropped next to Neega and a 2nd dropped next to Frostbite. The spider next to Neega bit her, doing a little piercing and a little poison damage. The spider next to Frostbite got in a nasty bite and gave him both piercing and poison damage. He growled fiercely at the spider.
Bree stabbed the spider next to Neega with her Dagger of Venom and got a sneak attack. The spider shrieked loudly as bodily fluids flowed out of a deep cut to its thorax. Neega then finished off the spider with one attack using Hazirawn. For her second attack, she ran over to the spider next to Frostbite and felled it in one mighty blow. Talis cast Cure Wounds on Frostbite, restoring most of his health. He nuzzled her in thanks.
These 2 spiders were dead, but everyone expected more to show up. Preston prepared to throw a Fire Bolt spell and Kellen prepared to fire his crossbow if more spiders appeared.
Sure enough, more enemies were coming. A spider dropped down next to Mara, and another dropped down next to Borovik. Preston used his Fire Bolt spell on the one next to Borovik and the spider shuddered from the fire damage it sustained. Kellen used his prepared action to shoot a crossbow bolt at the spider next to Mara, but it dodged out of the way.
The spider next to Borovik tried unsuccessfully to bite him. Borovik threw his Fire Bolt spell at the spider, and its smoking corpse fell to the ground. The spider next to Mara bit her and she cursed in elvish as she took a full dose of poison and piercing damage. She assumed the earth elemental wildshape and attacked the spider. Two blows from strong, rocky arms made it fall unconscious. At this point, an ettercap ran up to Talis and attacked her with teeth and claws, but Talis' armor shielded her from the blows.
"You'll die for trying to hurt her!" roared Frostbite.
He attacked the ettercap, delivering severe injuries with his bite and one claw attack. Bree pulled out her shortbow and hit the ettercap. She got a sneak attack, and it squealed as it went down.
Once again, all the enemies were slain, but the party suspected there would be even more. Neega prepared to attack with Hazirawn, Preston prepared to cast Fire Bolt again, Kellen prepared to shoot his crossbow again and Talis prepared to cast Cure Wounds if anyone needed it.
A 5th spider dropped down next to Bree. Neega was within 5 ft. of the spider and took her 2 attacks, killing it outright. The 6th spider dropped down next to Preston. He cast Fire Bolt on it, but the wily spider skittered out of the way. Kellen let loose his crossbow bolt at the spider next to Preston and the bolt lodged in the spider's abdomen.
The spider next to Preston bit him. He received a little piercing damage, but his Ring of Poison Resistance reduced the poison damage to very little. A 7th spider dropped down next to Kellen and bit him, giving him both piercing and poison damage.
Talis used her prepared action to cast Cure Wounds on Kellen and restore his health to full. Borovik next cast Scorching Ray at the spider next to Preston, taking it down with 2 rays. He threw the 3rd ray at the spider next to Kellen, but the cast went wide. Mara's earth elemental stomped over to the remaining spider and attacked. Two shattering blows knocked it flat on its back.
A second ettercap ran up next to Mara and attacked with teeth and claws. The claw attack missed but the bite attack hit. However, the earth elemental was immune to poison and resistant to non-magical piercing damage, so Mara took very little damage. A 3rd ettercap ran up to Frostbite and attacked. The bite attack hit and, not only did Frostbite take piercing damage, but he became poisoned.
"Not again!" he groused. "Now I'm really mad!"
Frostbite responded with an attack of his own, but the poison made his attacks a little clumsy and weak. Nevertheless, his bite and one claw attack connected, leaving the ettercap gasping and shaken. Bree shot the ettercap with her short bow, and Neega finished it off with Hazirawn. Neega then ran up to the ettercap next to Mara and struck it with Hazirawn, leaving it with a gaping wound in the chest. Preston casting Fire Bolt and Kellen firing his crossbow laid the final ettercap low. Talis surveyed the injuries of the group and saw Frostbite's condition.
"Oh, Frostbite! You're hurt again!" Talis cried as she removed his injuries with Cure Wounds.
After a couple of minutes Frostbite's poisoning had worn off and no more enemies had appeared. Talis gathered Neega, Preston and Mara into a group and cast Mass Healing Word on the group of them, returning the rest of the injured to full health. Hazirawn made happy buzzing sounds and commented about the unique taste of ettercap blood.
They continued on toward the waterfall, which grew louder and louder as they approached. Within half an hour they found it. Water cascaded down a high cliff on the SE side of an 80 ft. diameter pool. A small stream flowed away from the pool into the forest. The surface of the pool was obscured by a green haze, which they thought could be caused by the presence of a green dragon.
"Well, here's the waterfall," Bree commented. "Valanthe said the entrance to the cavern is behind it."
"How are we going to get behind the falls with this pool in our way?" asked Neega, "Do you think it's shallow enough to wade through?"
"Mara, can you wade into the water in your elemental form and see how deep it gets?" asked Borovik.
Mara nodded and began walking out into the center of the pool. She had gotten chest deep into the water without reaching the deepest point and turned back. Returning to the group, she shook her head no.
"Try skirting the pool around its outside edge. Maybe you can see if we can slip in behind the falls without drowning in deep water. We'll follow you," suggested Borovik.
Mara did so and found that a narrow ledge led behind the falls into the cavern entrance. It was a little slippery, and Mara thought that some of the group would have a hard time navigating it without falling into the pool below.
She came back out and pointed to Bree, making motions she hoped could be understood to indicate uncoiling a rope. Initially the group was confused, but eventually understood what she meant.
Bree pulled a rope from her pack and uncoiled it. Mara then took the end, held it against the rock wall beside the falls and made motions as if she was trying to secure the end.
"Got it!" exclaimed Bree. "You want me to secure the end of the rope to the wall."
Mara nodded. Bree secured the rope with pitons. Mara then led the agile Bree along the ledge and into the cavern entrance. She motioned for Bree to return to the group while she held the loose end of the rope. Not long after, the party members filed one-by-one along the ledge into the cavern entrance, clinging tightly to the rope. Bree then went back to untie the rope and bring it back with her.
The cavern entrance was dark, but those with dark vision could see that there was a steep, 40 ft. decline just inside the entrance, so they warned the others not to go forward. Mara resumed half-elf form so she could cast spells. She then gave Darkvision to Bree, Borovik and Preston.
Bree looked at Neega and said quietly, "You and I should secure a couple of ropes at the top here so everyone can get down safely."
Neega nodded and the ropes were quickly secured. The party climbed down the slippery slope to the bottom. They found that they were in a 45 ft. wide passageway with a 30 ft high ceiling that led off to the SE. About 50 ft ahead the passageway turned south. Bree crept stealthily forward along the path, noticing that it again turned to the SE after 40 or 50 ft. She went down as close to the bend as she dared, and saw 3 elves standing further down the passageway, as if they were guarding it. Fortunately, none of them noticed her.
She returned to the rest of the group and whispered, "I saw 3 elven guards, and there may have been more. What should we do?"
"Do you suppose they are cultists, or elves from the Misty Forest?" asked Talis.
"They're dressed more like Misty Forest elves than like cultists," responded Bree. "Maybe they're mercenaries."
"The presence of an armed guard supports the idea that this may be the dragon's lair," remarked Borovik.
"Why don't we pretend to be cultists who have been sent to serve the green dragon?" asked Kellen.
The rest of the party agreed, and they lined up to openly approach the elves. Since Borovik and Kellen were the most eloquent of the party, they went in the front of the party. As they rounded the corner and could clearly see the elves, they noticed that there was a 4th elf, whose clothing seemed to indicate he was nobility.
As soon as the elves noticed the party, they nocked arrows in their longbows and aimed them at the party. The noble called out in Common, "Halt! This is a restricted area! You may not enter!"
"Friends, we have been sent to be servants of the green dragon," said Kellen.
"Who sent you?" asked the noble, suspiciously.
"Dragonsoul Othelstan," piped in Talis.
"The leader of the cult didn't send you?"
"Severin Silrajin? Goodness, someone as mighty as he has no cause to speak to cultists as lowly as we. If he took part in the decision at all, it was probably just to order Dragonsoul Othelstan to send a group to serve the green dragon and his Wyrmspeaker."
Very well," said the noble, "To reach the cultists' quarters, enter the cavern beyond, turn left and go through the passageway to the north."
Entering the cavern, they found it to be a 120ft. by 140 ft. rectangle with a 40 ft. high ceiling. Massive stalactites hung from the ceiling and smaller stalagmites rose from the floor. A 90 ft. diameter pool dominated the eastern part of the room and an island stood in the center of the pool. Passageways led off the northern and western walls of the cavern. The SW corner of the room had a 25 ft. high bluff, apparently with a platform beyond. They followed a narrow section of cave floor between the pool and the north wall to the passageway leading to the cultists' quarters.
They found themselves in a narrow. 30 ft. long passageway through which they had to pass single file. Neega and Mara took to lead, followed by Bree and Kellen. Borovik and Preston came next. Talis and Frostbite brought up the rear, Frostbite having to squeeze a little to get through.
Neega, Mara, Bree, Kellen and Borovik went completely into the room, keeping together in case they weren't well received. Preston advanced to the end of the passageway where it entered the room. Frostbite and Talis were still within the passageway.
Neega and Mara, who had advanced into the room a little more than the rest of the group, glanced around. The room they entered looked like a common room where cultists ate and entertained themselves while waiting for orders. It was brightly lit by torches and there were long tables set out. A cooking fire burned in the center of the room. A short corridor to the left led to a sleeping room and another passageway led out of the room to the east.
There were 6 cultists in the room, 5 of whom wore regalia that identified them as dragonclaws and one of whom wore the garb of a dragonfang. They all looked up in surprise as the party came in. Although the party fooled the elves guarding the entrance, the cultists recognized the party as outsiders and prepared to attack.
Seeing the cultists rise and tense up, the party knew they were in for a fight. Bree took aim with her shortbow at a dragonclaw who was in front of her against the eastern wall. She hit, causing him to cry out in pain from the serious injury. Borovik targeted Melf's Acid Arrow at another dragonclaw, who was about 10 ft. in front of him. He hit it full in the chest, and the acid damage left the dragonclaw barely standing. Kellen then shot at a 3rd dragonclaw, one of 2 who were close to the far, northern wall, hitting and injuring it.
The dragonclaws began their attack. One of the dragonclaws who had been standing close to the northern wall ran up to Neega, attacking with its scimitar. Although it hit twice, it did little damage. The other dragonclaw standing close to the north wall, whom Kellen had already injured, ran up to Mara and attacked her. Because one of its allies was within 5 ft. of Mara, it got pack tactics, making it more likely to land a blow. It hit both times and Mara winced at her injuries. The dragonclaw in front of Borovik took a second round of acid damage from the Melf's Acid Arrow spell, and the injuries dropped it unconscious. A dragonclaw who had been in the middle of the room ran up to attack Borovik. It hit once with its scimitar, causing some injury and cutting a hole in his robe. The dragonclaw against the eastern wall, whom Bree had previously injured, ran up to get at Neega and Mara, but was blocked by 2 of its allies from getting to the front line of battle.
Neega went into a rage and shouted, "Eat steel!"
She then attacked the dragonclaw who was directly in front of her. One blow with Hazirawn knocked it out. She then turned her attention to the dragonclaw who was currently attacking Mara, but the dragonclaw dodged her blow.
Mara attacked the dragonclaw who had injured her, hitting its sword arm and nearly causing it to drop its scimitar. Talis was still in the passageway, but she had a line of sight on the combatants.
"Here's a heal, Mara," she called out as she cast Healing Word on her, using additional magical energy to restore more health.
Preston pulled out his Wand of Magic Missiles and cast the spell at the dragonclaw who was currently bedeviling Borovik. He hit with all 3 missiles and the dragonclaw staggered from the force damage. Bree once again fired an arrow at the injured dragonclaw behind those attacking Mara and Neega, hitting it in the abdomen and taking it out. Borovik cast Scorching Ray, using additional magical energy to get an additional fiery ray. He threw the first one at the dragonclaw attacking him. The flaming ray set the dragonclaw's armor on fire and it expired. Next, Borovik targeted the dragonclaw attacking Mara. The fiery ray hit the dragonclaw in the leg and knocked it off its feet, whereupon it passed out.
The dragonfang in the room was close to the eastern wall and decided not to get into the melee fight. It had a magical item, called an Orb of Dragon's Breath, which would allow it to do a ranged spell attack of fire at an opponent. It aimed at Neega and hit. She cursed in orcish as she sustained painful burns. Seeing this, Frostbite was determined to get to revenge on the dragonfang, so he did a dash that brought him to with 15 ft of it. However, he didn't have enough time to attack. Since Borovik had used only 2 of the fiery rays from his Scorching Ray spell, he threw the remaining 2 at the dragonfang. Both hit but the dragonfang took relatively little damage from the spell and Borovik realized it must have had resistance to fire damage. Kellen moved a little into the room to get a line of sight on the dragonfang, then let fly with his crossbow. He hit and added to the hurt the dragonfang was feeling.
The dragonfang saw Frostbite nearly on top of it and switched its attention to him. It attempted to hit Frostbite using its Orb of Dragon's Breath but missed. Frostbite responded by using his breath weapon against the dragonfang. It weathered the worst of the cold blast, but still took a lot of damage. Borovik again attacked the dragonfang, but this time used Melf's Acid Arrow at level 3 to increase the damage done. He hit and the dragonfang was trembling and crying from the pain.
Now that the dragonfang had used its Orb of Dragon's Breath twice, it couldn't use it again until the next day. It decided to do a melee attack, running up to attack Frostbite with its shortsword. It missed both times. At that point, it took another round of damage from Melf's Acid Arrow. Frostbite's breath weapon didn't recharge, so he did melee attack on the dragonfang facing him. Unfortunately, he missed with all 3 attacks. Borovik's ongoing damage from Melf's Acid Arrow on the dragonfang had now expired, so he cast it again, using additional magical energy to deal more damage. The dragonfang collapsed to the floor from the acid burns.
Shouting and scrambling could be heard in the neighboring sleeping chambers, and the party realized that there had been sleeping cultists in there, who were now awake and coming to the battle. Dragonclaws from the sleeping room dashed to the common area to get within melee range of the party, but none of them had time to actually make attacks. One dragonclaw did a dash to get in front of Mara, which also put it within 5 ft of Bree. Another dashed to get in front of Kellen, which also put it within 5 ft of Mara. A 3rd dashed to get in front of Preston. A 4th ran to the last available space in front of the party, which put it within 5 ft of Mara. The final dragonclaw in the sleeping room ran up to the line but was blocked by allies from getting within melee range of anyone.
Neega moved over to dragonclaw menacing Kellen and hit it with Hazirawn, rendering it unconscious. She then moved over a little to get next to one of the dragonclaws menacing Mara. Her second attack with Hazirawn took it out.
A second dragonfang had been sleeping in the cultist quarters, and now used its bonus action to fly over the heads of its allies and land in the spot just vacated by a dragonclaw downed by Neega. This put it in front of Neega and within 5 ft of Mara. It did two attacks with its shortsword on Neega, getting pack tactics because an ally was next to Neega. Both attacks hit and Neega took a lot of damage, despite having her Barbarian resistance. Blood flowed heavily from a cut to her shoulder, and she looked a little pale.
Hearing Neega cry out, Talis, looked around for her but didn't have a line of sight to cast Healing Word. Because of the crush of combatants at the entrance, she couldn't move closer.
"Neega! Where are you? I can't heal you if I can't see you!" she shouted.
Mara attacked the dragonclaw directly in front of her. She hit with her scimitar and delivered a gash across the dragonclaw's chest. Preston attacked the dragonclaw right in front of him with Ray of Sickness. He gave it a heavy dose of poison damage and left it reeling with an ongoing poisoned condition. Bree attacked the dragonclaw who was attacking Mara, using her Dagger of Venom. She got in a superb blow and loss of blood made the dragonclaw faint. Kellen aimed his crossbow at the dragonclaw who was menacing Preston. He hit in in the neck and it fell to the floor.
The only remaining dragonclaw ran up into the gap created by the fall of the dragonclaw in front of Mara, which put it in front of Mara and Bree. It took 2 attacks with its scimitar at Bree. One hit and Bree grimaced. Neega attacked the second dragonfang, who was right in front of her. She hit with both attacks, and it groaned as she gashed first one of its arms, then the other. The dragonfang again attacked her, but it no longer got pack tactics. It hit with the second attack, but Neega's resistance kept the damage to a relatively small amount. Mara cast the Moonbeam spell, positioning it to include both the dragonclaw and the dragonfang within the spell's area of effect.
Radiant energy enveloped both of them, with the dragonclaw suffering the most injury. Bree targeted the final dragonclaw with her dagger and hit. She got sneak attack damage because of Mara's presence, and this caused it to fall unconscious. The combined efforts of Kellen and Neega finished off the dragonfang.
At about that time, the party heard shouting out in the pool cavern. The guard elves were calling out for help because they could hear a fight in the cultists' quarters. This was followed by footsteps. Talis readied her spear to attack any enemies coming up the passageway. The elf guards arrived at the passageway coming into the cultist quarters. The noble elf guard moved to get a line of sight on Talis and shot with its longbow. It grazed her leg and left a gash.
One of the elf guards moved to get line of sight on Talis and its fired longbow, but her armor deflected the shot. A second guard elf 2 ran up the passageway to attack Talis. She used her prepared attack to hit it with her spear, rocking it back on its heels. It quickly recovered and attacked her with its club, but her armor once again deflected the blow. The 3rd guard elf moved to get line of sight on Talis and fired its longbow. It hit her arm and she cried out in pain. Preston saw Talis' plight and cast the Shatter spell at all the guard elves who had not yet entered the passageway. A deafening boom like thunder filled a 20 ft. diameter sphere around the elves. The noble elf guard sustained heavy injuries and the 2 non-noble elf guards died. Neega pitched a javelin at the elf guard who had just injured Talis, hitting and killing it instantly. The injured noble elf guard fired its longbow at Talis again and the arrow grazed across her cheek.
The party then heard load roars, as if they were voices of giants, coming from the pool cavern and realized powerful reinforcements were coming. Mara moved next to Neega and cast Cure Wounds, using additional magical energy to heal more, although it wasn't enough to completely restore Neega to health. She then retreated back away from the passageway. Talis saw an elf mage flying above the island in the center of the pool and shouted for everyone to get out of the passageway.
The sound of footsteps was heard running up the passageway leading east out of the common room. Frostbite moved up to the eastern entrance and readied an attack in case someone entered. Preston moved further into the room and prepared to cast Shatter if anyone entered through the east passageway.
Bree now had a little breathing space, so she scrambled around the room and retrieved 3 undamaged arrows from dead bodies. Kellen did the same and retrieved 3 crossbow bolts. Borovik ran to where he could see the far end of the passageway into the pool cavern and cast Wall of Fire just outside the entrance. He set the active side to face out into the pool cavern. Neega positioned herself just off to side of passageway from the pool cavern and prepared to attack anyone coming through the wall of fire. The party heard bellowing screams on the other side of the fire wall.
Mara looked around and saw Talis with multiple wounds and bleeding heavily.
"Baby! Let me help!" she cried as she got next to Talis and cast Cure Wounds.
That relieved most of Talis' injuries. Talis then cast Cure Wounds on Neega to further heal her injuries, using her Life Domain ability to do healing on herself as well. Both Talis and Neega were restored to almost full health.
At this point an elf man wearing a purple robe and purple cloak ran into the room from the east passageway. He stopped and stared at the pile of dead cultists and the outsiders in the room. Frostbite, whose breath weapon had not yet recharged, used his prepared melee attack. He hit with one claw attack. After his prepared action, he took his regular action. All 3 of his attacks hit. delivering piercing, slashing and cold damage. Preston cast his prepared Shatter spell. The man took full thunder damage from the spell.
Bree ran toward the eastern passageway to get a line of sight on the man, and fired her shortbow, but the shot went wide. Borovik's Blight spell also went wide. Kellen finally connected with a bolt from his crossbow. The man staggered from the pain and nearly fell. Neega ran to the elven man and attacked, but despite his injuries, the man dodged both blows. Mara successfully cast Blight on the elven man, giving him a big load of necrotic damage.
Suddenly the elven man loudly shouted out, "Chuth, return to the lair and meet me there."
He turned to run, and this attracted attacks of opportunity from both Neega and Frostbite. Frostbite missed, but Neega hit hard, and the man succumbed to his injuries. After the man was down, Talis recognized him as Neronvain, the Green Dragon Wyrmspeaker. The party beat the unconscious form to death to make sure he would never again bring misery to the Misty Forest elves.
Borovik said they had a little less than a minute before the Wall of Fire burned out, then they would have to deal with the reinforcements. Frostbite's breath weapon recharged during this time. Kellen scrambled around and recovered 3 more undamaged bolts. Neega and Frostbite positioned themselves at the south passageway, preparing melee attacks for any enemies coming up the passageway. Mara moved next to Frostbite to be at the northern end the melee line, preparing her scimitar attack in case an enemy got far enough into the room to be within her range. Borovik and Preston stationed themselves just inside the passageway leading to the sleeping room, Preston preparing to cast Ray of Sickness and Borovik preparing to cast Witch Bolt. Bree and Kellen took up positions behind Frostbite and Neega, preparing to fire missiles if an enemy came through the passageway. Talis remained at the rear, to be in a position to heal anyone needing it.
The Wall of Fire burned out and the party could hear running footsteps. Two bedraggled elves in dirty, tattered clothing ran just up to the entrance of the passageway but didn't have time to take an action. The flying mage, another elf in bedraggled robes, saw that the Wall of Fire had gone down and flew up to the entrance to the passageway. Borovik was the only party member who could see it, but it was out of range of his Witch Bolt spell. The mage could see Borovik, and cast Magic Missiles at him, doing a small amount of force damage.
An ettin, sporting charred clothing and burns on its arms, did a dash to get as far into the passageway as it could. It got about halfway up the passageway and was now within the range of Borovik's spell, so he let fly. Lightning hit the ettin in the chest and it jerked as electricity coursed through its body. A second ettin, also obviously burned, dashed up behind the first ettin, but the passageway was too narrow to allow it to go further past its ally. A 3rd ettin tried to dash into the cultists' quarters, but was blocked by a number of allies, and had to stop just outside the passageway. Preston moved a little to get a line of sight on the ettin in front and cast Ray of Sickness on it. He hit, dealing damage to the ettin and leaving it briefly poisoned. He then stepped back into the relative cover of the passage to the sleeping chambers. Bree stepped just in front of Mara to get a good line of sight on the lead ettin and shot it with her shortbow. The ettin bellowed as its injuries mounted. Borovik used his action to deal more electricity damage from the Witch Bolt spell to the lead ettin.
One of the bedraggled elves dashed through the passageway to get into the common room but didn't have time to make an attack. Kellen used his prepared action to shoot at the elf and killed it outright. The second bedraggled elf also dashed into the common room but didn't have time to attack. Neega attacked it and instantly killed it with one blow. She then stepped into the passageway and took a swing at the ettin in front. She hit and it fell unconscious. Then she stepped back to her previous position.
The mage flew above the heads of its allies into the room. Since it kept near the ceiling, it was out of melee range for Frostbite, Neega or Mara, so no one could use prepared actions on it. The mage then cast Fireball, positioning it to hit the largest number of enemies it could see. Kellen, Talis, Mara, Frostbite, Bree and Neega were all caught by the Fireball. Talis, Bree and Frostbite managed to dodge the worst of the fire ball and took only half damage. Neega dodged the worst of the spell and her Barbarian resistance ensured that she took very little of the fire damage. Kellen and Mara took full damage and Mara was now had serious burns.
The noble elf guard next dashed into the room but didn't have time to attack. Frostbite used his prepared action to attack. He bit the noble elf guard and it collapsed from the piercing and cold damage.
The next ettin in line ran up the passageway to Frostbite and attacked with its battleaxe and morningstar. Frostbite's durable dragon hide deflected both blows. The ettin at the rear ran up behind the other ettin and attacked Neega. This ettin hit with both blows, but Neega's Barbarian resistance ensured that the damage was fairly small.
Mara really wanted to get rid of the flying elf mage, so cast Blight at it. It took a lot of necrotic damage and was now seriously hurt. In addition, the damage caused it to lose concentration on its fly spell, so it fell to the floor. The bludgeoning damage it sustained as a consequence of falling took it out of the combat.
Talis ran next to Mara and grasped her arm, saying, "My love! You're hurt!"
She then cast Cure Wounds using additional magical energy to heal as much of Mara's wounds as she could and do a little healing on herself.
Frostbite attacked the ettin in front of him, hitting with both claws and teeth. Another elf ran into the passageway, this one a knight with tarnished armor. He didn't get close enough to engage in the battle.
Preston cast Chill Touch at the ettin in front of Neega, hurting it with necrotic damage and preventing it from regaining any health for a round. Bree hit the ettin with her short bow. It fell unconscious, Bree's arrow protruding from its chest. Borovik targeted the final ettin with the Witch Bolt spell. He hit and the ettin received lightning damage. Kellen tried unsuccessfully to hit the ettin with his crossbow.
The party heard a loud roar from off to the southeast, in a part of the caverns they had not yet been. Talis and Borovik recognized the roar as being in Draconic. It was Chuth, calling out, "Neronvain! Where are you?"
Neega attacked the ettin in front of her. She hit with both blows and now the panting ettin looked wobbly. Despite its injuries the ettin attacked Neega. It hit with its morningstar, but Neega's resistance prevented the damage from being more than minor. Mara and Frostbite combined efforts to attack the ettin, finally knocking it unconscious.
The bedraggled elf knight finally made it into the cavern and attacked Mara twice with its greatsword. It hit twice and Mara was bleeding heavily. Preston stepped forward to where he got a line of sight on the knight and hit it with Fire Bolt. He blasted it square on the head and its helmet glowed red while a little smoke wafted out the sides. Bree moved to where she had a line of sight on the Knight and planted an arrow deep into its thigh. The knight cried out loudly from the pan. Borovik's Fire Bolt increased the knight's injuries. Kellen cast Vicious Mockery at the knight, dealing a small amount of damage and giving it disadvantage on its next attack roll.
As three more ragged elves entered the passageway leading to the common room, Neega took out the elf knight with one blow. She then ran down the passageway and attacked the elf at the front of the latest group. She hit it and killed it instantly. She then retreated back to her former position to give one of the other party members room to enter the narrow passageway. Mara ran into the passageway and attacked the next bedraggled elf in line, killing it.
The party saw a couple more elves approaching the passageway. They appeared to have been nobles, since their clothes were costly and finer than the others. However, their finery was now just as tattered as that of the commoner elves. Frostbite ran down the passageway, stopping right in front of the final tattered commoner elf. He used his cold breath to attack the commoner and the 2 nobles, killing them all.
The party cautiously came to the pool cavern and peeked out. The could neither see nor hear any more support troops, so they returned to the cultists' quarters. The only sound they heard was the green dragon bellowing angrily in the deeper part of the caverns.
"By the Sword of Tempus! I think we got them all!" exclaimed Neega. "It looks like the green dragon is the only enemy left in the cavern. Let's go get him!"
"Some of us could use a rest!" Bree responded crossly.
"Can we take a long rest?" asked Mara. "We have used up a lot of our magical energy. I don't know if I feel up to facing the dragon right now."
Borovik scratched his chin. "We don't know if there are more cultists who are not currently in the caverns, and who might come back while we are taking the long rest. And by the time we finish a long rest, the dragon will have probably figured out what happened and will come after us."
"Well, if we at least take a short rest, we can restore our health without me using more of my dwindling magical healing energy," Talis pointed out.
The rest of the party agreed, and they settled down for a short rest.