When they began their short rest, Kellen played his harp and sang a Song of Rest, which granted additional healing to party members. Borovik studied his spellbook in order to regain some of his magical energy. By resting, Mara renewed her ability to assume wildshapes. Neega looted a long bow from one of the elves and gathered as any arrows as she could fit in a quiver. Bree scavenged arrows from the elf bodies to refill her quiver. Kellen gathered as many reusable bolts as he could from dead bodies.
Mara and Talis lay down next to each other to comfort one another after the injuries each had received. As Talis lay with her head on Mara's shoulder, she received a telepathic message from one of the white dragons.
"Talis, this is Bakirer, one of the white dragons guarding the prisoner pens at the Well of Dragons," the dragon said. "We have freed your mother from the prisoner pens, and she is hiding with us in a cave several miles from the ritual site."
Talis sat bolt upright, and tears began to stream down her face.
"Mara!" she cried." Mama has escaped from the Well of Dragons! The white dragons have just contacted me and told me!"
"Oh, thank Mother Moon! Where is she right now?"
"She and the dragons are hiding in a cave. Let me get some more details from them."
Talis sent a mental message to the white dragon, "Bakirer, can I come to see Mama?"
"We have to get her away from here first, since the Cult of the Dragon will certainly be searching for her," responded Bakirer. "We're making plans with Ralazrad to get Naomi back to Ralazrad's lair, where she will be well protected. We have to be careful, because by now the Cult knows that at least some of the white dragons are actively working against the summoning ritual. They know Ralazrad is not a supporter of the ritual, so if they see her approach, they may try to follow her to Naomi's hiding place."
"Tell Mama that I love her and will get a sending message to her once we finish our business here."
Talis reported to Mara "As soon as they can, they will take Mama to Ralazrad's lair. That will be a secure place for her."
The rest of the party rejoiced when Talis explained that her mother was free and was waiting for evacuation to a safe haven. She cried in joy and relief and felt a new rush of courage as they prepared for the next phase of the fight.
As they rested, they could hear Chuth in the deeper caverns roaring and cursing in Draconic. He continued this for perhaps 20 minutes, then briefly stopped. A couple of minutes later, they heard a splash in the pool of the adjoining cavern. Chuth began roaring again, but this time he was nearer, in the pool cavern.
"Elves! Ettins!" he roared in Draconic. "Get out here and defend my lair!"
They could hear his wings as he flew round the cavern. When he spotted the dead bodies outside the cultists' quarters, he roared again, "Dead? All of you? Who did this?"
"Can he get into the cultist quarters?" whispered Bree nervously.
"I don't think so," answered Borovik. "The passageway is narrow enough so he couldn't get through, even if he squeezed."
Talis added, "He could probably stick his head in a little way. If he did, he might use his poison breath weapon. We should get as far from that passageway as we can."
The party moved themselves close to the eastern exit, making sure they would not be within a cone of poison that might be thrown at them.
Chuth heard them moving around in the cultists' quarters. He shouted, "Intruders! Where is Neronvain? I will kill you for invading my lair!"
He tried unsuccessfully to enter the passageway. He then stuck his head in as far as he could and spewed forth a cone of poisonous gas. It failed to touch any of the party members.
"Still alive?" he bellowed. "Come meet me in my lair, if you have the courage!"
The heard his wings as he took to the air again, and then dove back into the pool.
"There must be an underwater tunnel from the pool cavern into his lair," noted Borovik. "Do we want to follow him?"
"I don't," sputtered Bree. "We don't know how long the tunnel is or if we could swim that far without drowning. Plus, I'm sure he would be waiting for us to emerge from the tunnel and nail us."
"There might be another way to get in there," offered Mara. "We should at least look around."
"Let's go back through the passageway Neronvain came out of," suggested Neega. "If we can find his quarters, we might find a passageway leading into Chuth's lair."
The rest of the party thought this was a good idea, so they left the cultists' quarters through the eastern exit. Neega and Bree took positions at the front of the line to spot trouble or traps. The passageway here was narrow here, only about 5 ft. wide. Frostbite complained a little because his wings kept scraping up again the sides of the wall. About 35 ft. down the passageway, they encountered a new passageway branching off to the south.
Neega stopped at the intersection and inquired of the rest of the party, "Which way?"
Borovik came to the front of the line and peered down the passageway going south. After about 25 ft. it seemed to enter a room. There were fine rugs on the floor, and he could see a couple pieces of furniture.
"This looks like it leads into some sort of living space," he said. "We might want to look down this way. But first let me check for any magical wards. If this is Neronvain's quarters, he probably wouldn't have left it unguarded."
Borovik carefully examined the walls, ceiling and floors of the passageway ahead of him. He didn't see anything, so he crept forward and looked again. He still saw nothing peculiar, so he crept forward again and searched. Now he saw something. There was a nearly invisible set of runes drawn on the floor, right at the entrance to the room beyond. Borovik recognized it as a Glyph of Warding. He stepped back to the intersection and called to Kellen.
"Kellen, there's a Glyph of Warding at the entrance to the room beyond. Can you cast Dispel Magic to disable it?"
"Sure," smiled Kellen.
He focused his attention on the spot where Borovik said the ward was and cast Dispel Magic. In a little puff of smoke, the ward dissipated.
"Thank you, Kellen," said Borovik. "If I hadn't spotted it, I would have walked right into it and who knows what would have exploded in my face! I think I will look into learning the spell Detect Magic when we get back to Waterdeep."
The party came down the passageway into the room, and found that it was lushly decorated, despite being in a rough-walled cavern. Fine carpets lay on the floor and fine tapestries hung on the walls. A hewn log bed was placed against one wall and a well-crafted table for eating and writing, along with a chair, were set against the opposite wall. A large mirror hung on the wall, above a dressing table with a delicately painted washbowl and pitcher. A sturdy oak closet stood next to the mirror, and it was filled with expensive clothing. A trunk sat on the floor at the foot of the bed.
A tapestry on the south wall drew Borovik's attention. It was set apart; no other tapestries were near it. He went over to examine it. When he looked behind it, he noticed a thin section of the wall behind the tapestry was a different texture than the rest of the wall in the cavern. It almost looked like someone had plugged up a crack in the wall with stones.
"Come take a look at this, folks," he said.
They came over and examined it with him.
"I wonder if we can take the stones out?" said Bree. "Maybe it hides some treasure."
Neega and Frostbite began pulling out stones and found that the crack led into another room beyond. The crack was narrow. Big enough for the rest of the party, but Frostbite looked at it with dismay.
"How am I supposed to get through there?" he complained.
"Well, let's figure out if this next room leads to the dragon's lair," suggested Borovik. "It is does, then we can worry about how to get you through there."
The party entered the next room, which was much sparer than the previous one. There was a small shrine in the room, which Borovik recognized as a shrine to Fenmarel Mestarine, the elven god of outcasts, scapegoats and solitude. A book sat on a small table. Opening it up, Bree saw that it was a journal.
They could hear the green dragon muttering and cursing directly to the south. Kellen made a motion for people to be quiet and put his ear against the south wall.
"He's in there, beyond this wall," he whispered to his companions.
When they examined the wall, they again found what looked like a crack that had been blocked up with stones. Bree asked Mara to cast Guidance on her to increase the probability that she avoided detection as she pulled out a couple of stones to get a glimpse of what was beyond. As quiet as she tried to be, the dragon still heard her move the stones and bellowed.
"Back into the other room!" Bree yelled.
The party scrambled up to the north wall and ran through the narrow gap as fast as they could. Meanwhile, Chuth flew over to the plugged-up crack and clawed at it. In no time he had pulled out the stones, but the gap was much too small for him to get more than his nose through.
He screamed through the hole, this time in common, "What have you done with Neronvain? I will kill you all!"
"We better prepare to prevent being poisoned," said Mara. "Bree, can you pull that magic ewer we found at Diderius' tomb out to the Portable Hole? That can give 4 of us Protection from Poison for 3 hours."
Bree immediately unfolded the Portable Hole and retrieved the silver ewer and goblets.
Mara continued, "Preston has a Ring of Protection from Poison, so he won't need it. I intend to become an air elemental, so I will have immunity to poison. Neega is wearing the Dragonguard Breastplate, which gives her advantages on saving throws from dragon breath weapons. And her Barbarian abilities gives her resistance to the poison. That means that Protection from Poison Spells will need to be cast on one person."
"So, Frostbite should certainly get a drought," suggested Kellen.
"I vote that Kellen, Bree and Borovik get the other 3," said Talis. "I am going to be at the back, so should have less chance of getting hit by the poison breath."
Bree poured out droughts into the 4 cups and she, Kellen, Frostbite and Bovovik drank them. Mara walked over to Talis, touched her on the shoulder, and cast Protection from Poison on her.
"Be careful, Baby," she whispered in Talis' ear and kissed her.
"You, too," Talis replied.
While this was going on, Chuth was struggling to break the gap in the wall open wider. But all he managed to do was get his head jammed in the crack. With a shriek, he yanked his head free, howling as the rocks scraped the side of his face.
"We need to make a plan," said Borovik. "Since Chuth now knows we're out here we can't sneak one-by-one through the crack in the wall. He would just pick each one of us off as we went in."
"I have an idea," suggested Mara. "If I turn into an air elemental, Frostbite and I can go in first. We can fly around Chuth and distract him. This will allow the rest of the party to get into the lair and increase the chance that ranged attacks will hit him."
"How am I supposed to get in" groused Frostbite. "Those cracks in the walls are pretty darn narrow."
"Maybe you can swim through the underwater tunnel into the lair," Mara responded. "How far can you swim before running out of breath?"
Frostbite thought about it and said, "If I dash, I think I can swim about 320 ft. before I need to surface and get a breath."
"I'd be willing to bet that the tunnel isn't 320 ft. long. Are you willing to try that?"
"I guess so," Frostbite said, looking a little worried.
Borovik spoke up, "If we're going to split up, I want to cast Rary's Telepathic Bond on the party so we can be in contact during the battle. I can do it as a ritual, even though I don't have it prepared."
"Good idea," remarked Kellen.
"When I'm in the air elemental form, I can't speak common," Mara pointed out. "Any messages that I send to the rest of you will have to be images, rather than words. Also, before I do a whirlwind attack, I will make a whistling sound to alert any party members to get away from me."
"How will I tell you that I'm ready to emerge into Chuth's lair so you can enter the lair at the same time?" asked Frostbite.
"Send me an image of you emerging out of the water," replied Mara.
The plans were made and Borovik cast Rary's Telepathic Bond on the entire party. Frostbite cautiously crept out into the pool cavern. When he saw that Chuth wasn't there, he lowered himself as silently as he could into the pool. He swam to the bottom of the pool, found the tunnel and swam into it. As he went, he sent images of himself underwater to the party. Mara assumed the air elemental shape and quietly flew up to the gap in the wall leading to the lair. She saw that Chuth had returned to the center of the lair, hovering about 30 ft. off the ground. She took up a position against the wall, next to the gap and sent images to the party of Chuth's position in the lair. The rest of the party followed her back into the shrine room and prepared to begin their assault.
Frostbite swam through the tunnel and into the lair. He sent images to the party of himself swimming to the surface. Mara, whose air elemental form could squeeze through exceedingly narrow spaces, entered the lair though the gap in the wall and flew toward Chuth. Doing a dash, she got within 20 ft of him. Frostbite broke through the surface of the pool, roared loudly and flew into the lair. He ended up about 20ft. SW of Chuth, which put him around 45 ft. S of Mara. Chuth was distracted by the sudden appearance of 2 enemies into his lair, and the rest of the party entered the lair without him noticing.
Bree ran into the room and fired her shortbow at Chuth, hitting and injuring him. Mara moved to the east so as to put herself diagonally opposite from Frostbite, thus making it harder for him to watch them both at once. She spewed insults in Auran to continue distracting him. Chuth now used one of his Lair actions to create a fog around Frostbite, charming him and causing him to stop his distraction attempts.
Neega ran into the lair and used her longbow to shoot at Chuth. She hit and added a small amount to the injury he already had. Preston, Talis, Borovik and Kellen dashed to get into the lair, but had no time to do attacks. Borovik sent a telepathic image to Mara and Frostbite of the party just inside the lair, clumped in a tight group.
Aware that there were now additional assailants in his lair, Chuth tried to frighten them with his Frightful Presence Action. He roared in anger as he saw that no one was affected. Mara was the nearest active enemy to him, so he flew up to her and attacked. He bit her, but she was immune to the poison damage and her resistance to piercing damage reduced the injuries to only a little. However, she took full damage from both claw attacks.
Bree attacked again with her shortbow, but the arrow went wide. Mara used a bonus action to do a Combat Wildshape Healing on herself. She then flew in circles around Chuth to restore the distracting effect, shouting at him in Auran. The fog that had charmed Frostbite now timed out and Frostbite was freed from the spell.
Chuth became concerned with the party members who had just entered and used another Lair Action to cast grasping vines on them. Bree, Borovik, Talis and Kellen were all caught in the tangling vegetation. Neega and Preston managed to break free.
"Spread out when you get free!" Borovik send a telepathic message to the party. "That way he can't entangle the entire group of us again."
Neega fired her longbow, but Chuth's tough dragon hide deflected the arrow. She then moved further into the lair to get closer to Chuth. Preston cast the Shatter spell at Chuth, aiming so as not to hit Mara with it. However, Chuth was tough enough to avoid any damage from the spell. Preston then moved out of the vines, stopping against the east wall. Talis unsuccessfully attempted to break free of the vines. Kellen could no longer see Chuth, so didn't try to take a shot. Instead, he also tried to free himself from the vines, but failed.
Frostbite flew to within 30 ft. of Chuth and fired off his Cold Breath weapon. Chuth's hide was tough enough to protect him from the full effect, but a big patch on his side became painfully frostbitten. Borovik decided to use his action to throw a Fireball spell at Chuth, using additional magical energy to do more damage and aiming it so as not to hit any party members nearby. A 40 ft. diameter ball of fire enveloped Chuth and he failed to dodge the spell. However, he used a Legendary Resistance reaction to lessen the effect and took only half of the fire damage. Nonetheless, there were blisters and burns over a good deal of his body.
Chuth wanted to get rid of the pests flying around him, so he did a wing attack at Mara. Mara failed to dodge the attack, but because of her resistance to bludgeoning damage, she received little injury. Her immunity to being knocked down saved her from the prone condition. He then flew a short distance away from Mara, but her attack of opportunity missed. Chuth ended up about 20 ft. from Frostbite and then used his Poison Breath Weapon to launch a sickly green cone against both Neega and Frostbite. Because of the Protection from Poison effects, both had increased chances of dodging the worst of the Poison. Neega made the dodge, but Frostbite didn't. Frostbite's resistance to poison reduced the damage he took to half. Neega had additional Barbarian resistance and took very little poison damage.
Neega was furious and she yelled, "Die, you son of a kobold!"
Now that Chuth had moved, Bree could no longer see him and couldn't target him with an arrow. Attempting to get closer to Chuth, she tried and failed to get free herself from the vines. Mara flew up to Chuth and did slam attacks, but Chuth dodged them both. The Lair Action vines timed out and disappeared, freeing the remaining party members from the entanglement.
Chuth then did another fog Lair Action, this time on Mara, causing her to become charmed, and she stopped taunting him. Neega fired her longbow at Chuth from her new position but missed. Preston moved closer to Chuth so he had a visual in him. Guessing that Chuth had high saves against spells, he used his Wand of Magic Missiles to fire bolts of force damage, which couldn't be saved against. The damage was relatively little, but Chuth took the full amount. Frostbite's breath weapon didn't recharge, so he flew up to Chuth and did a melee attack, slashing Chuth's neck with one claw attack. Seeing Preston's successful use of Magic Missile against Chuth, Borovik decided to use that same spell, and cast it with the maximum amount of magical energy he could muster. Seven darts of force flew from his hand and Chuth roared in pain as they exploded in force damage against his chest.
Chuth now had serious injuries and decided to flee. Both Mara and Frostbite were next to him when he fled. Mara was charmed and didn't take an attack of opportunity. However, Frostbite did a bite attack and hit, injuring Chuth's tail as he fled.
When the party saw Chuth fleeing, they ran as fast as they could back through the passageways. Frostbite dove into the water, but his swimming speed was only half that of Chuth, and he couldn't keep up. By the time they got back into the pool cavern, they realized Chuth had already escaped the den through the waterfall.
They all gathered around Talis, and she healed up everyone who was injured. Afterwards, they returned to the lair and looted the treasure there. Since this wasn't his main lair, the hoard was relatively small. However, they got a large number of coins and 10 gold trade bars. The gold bars went into the Portable Hole and the coins were distributed to the party. The weight of the coins threatened to tear the coin purses, so everyone put their coin purses into the Portable Hole until they could exchange the coins for ones of larger denomination.
They decided to return to the cultists' quarters and take a long rest. On the way back, Borovik took Neronvain's journal from the shrine room so he could study it during the break. They relit the cooking fire in the cultists' common room and made themselves something to eat. Borovik began reading Neronvain's journal.
After reading only a few pages, he exclaimed in shock, "Oh, no! Neronvain was King Melandrach's son! I wonder how he got mixed up in the Cult of the Dragon, and why Melandrach never mentioned him?"
"The story behind that is probably further in. Keep reading," commented Kellen.
Borovik did just that and found out that Neronvain was the eldest child of Melandrach, the heir to the crown. However, he had many serious disagreements with his father about the way Melandrach ruled the kingdom. Their arguments grew more and more furious until Melandrach finally exiled Neronvain from the court. Neronvain subsequently joined the Cult of the Dragon, where he became the companion of the adult green dragon, Chuth. When the plans to summon Tiamat to the material plane began to be formulated, he was given the title Green Dragon Wyrmspeaker and took responsibility for the Green Dragon Mask. His journal detailed the raids he did on Misty Forest elven communities to get treasure for Tiamat's hoard. Neronvain also recorded that the Green Dragon Mask was now at the Well of Dragons, ready to be assembled into the Mask of the Dragon Queen.
"We have to tell Prince Alagarthas about this," said Borovik, after he finished scanning the journal.
"I can't imagine that Melandrach is going to be happy that we killed his son," worried Bree.
"Well, he's already unhappy with us, so how is this going to be different?" sniffed Neega.
When it was time to sleep, Kellen cast Leomund's Tiny Hut and all the humanoids went inside. Watches were assigned in case additional cultists entered the den as they rested.
As Mara and Talis were settling down next to each other, Talis received a telepathic message from Otaaryliakkarnos, "Talis, I have a message from Bahamut for you. He says that you have performed admirably on your first test, and resisted temptations to draw on Tiamat's power for spells he had not given you permission to use. For your loyalty and strength, he will now allow you to draw on his power to cast additional spells. These will specifically be spells to help your comrades during and between battles. You are not to use any combat spells yet.
"The spells added to the list will be Guidance, Resistance, Spare the Dying, Bless, Protection from Evil and Good, Sanctuary, Shield of Faith, Lesser Restoration, Aid, Gentle Repose, Prayer of Healing, Protection from Poison, Warding Bond, Beacon of Hope, Revivify, Protection from Energy, Remove Curse, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, Raise Dead, Greater Restoration and Heroes Feast. In addition, he will grant you permission to use the Sending spell, so you can more easily communicate with your mother."
Talis bowed her head and said, "Thank you, Otaaryliakkarnos. This is most generous, and I will use my magic to keep my comrades safe."
She then whispered a prayer of thanks to Bahamut. A warmth in her chest let her know that her prayer had been acknowledged. She then composed a Sending message to send to Naomi, "Defeated green dragon terrorizing Misty Forest. Love you and can't wait to see you again."
Naomi responded, " Love you, my child. Proud of your courage. Be safe until we meet again."
Talis snuggled against Mara and explained what Otaaryliakkarnos had just told her. She fell into a peaceful sleep.
No cultists returned during the rest. The next morning, they searched the caverns to see if there was anything worth looting. First, they went back to Neronvain's quarters. The furniture, tapestries and at objects looked like they would fetch a good price on the market. However, they suspected that the items were stolen from Misty Forest elves, and that they should alert the elves to retrieve their own goods.
"What's in the trunk?" Bree asked, eyeing it with great interest.
"Since Neronvain had the entrance to his quarters trapped, I would be willing to bet he installed a trap on the trunk," said Borovik. "We should examine it closely to check that out."
Mara cast Guidance on both Bree and Borovik to increase their chances of detecting any trap. They closely examined the trunk and did indeed find a trap.
"A needle trap!" exclaimed Bree. "I'll bet it's poisoned!"
"So, how will we get the trunk open without getting stuck by the needle?" asked Neega.
"I will stand off to the side as I open it," explained Bree. The needle is on a spring and will project straight out from the trap. It won't hit me if I'm not in front of it."
Bree stood off to the side of the trunk and carefully pried the lid up. Sure enough, as the trunk opened, a needle sprang out and would have pierced her hand if she had opened it while standing in front of it. The needle had been coated with a shiny, green substance. Peering into the trunk, the party found it contained several art objects. They decided to leave them for the elves from whom they had been stolen to retrieve.
They then went north back up the passage and took the unexplored passage to the east. This led to a storeroom, where food and drink was stored. They took food with them to replenish their rations. Within the room were 8 bottles of Evermead, a rare alcoholic beverage from the elven island of Evermeet. Again, they chose to inform the elves about it, rather than loot it.
Next, they went back to the cultists' quarters and looted their bodies. Curiously, none of the coin purses seemed to have anything in them, However, searching the sleeping quarters revealed coins and a silver trade bar stashed away under mattresses, which they looted. They took the coin purse off one of the cultists, put the coins in there and placed it, along with the silver bar, into the portable hole.
"Let's loot those Orbs of Dragon Breath," said Borovik.
He picked one up from a dead dragonfang, but couldn't sense any magical energy within it. He attempted to cast the spell from the orb, but it did nothing.
"Hmm, maybe the Dragon Breath was a spell the cultists had, and the orb just functioned as an arcane focus," he mused. "Let's go ahead and loot them, and when we return to Waterdeep I will ask some of my scholar friends to examine them and see if they contain the spell or not."
They examined the bodies in the pool cavern. The bedraggled elves didn't even have coin purses at all, nor did the ettins. However, one of the ettins had a Belt of Hill Giant Strength, which it had been wearing as a sash across its chest, rather than as a belt. So, it received no benefit from the belt's magic. They looted the belt. The only enemies with coins on their persons were the pool cavern guards, whom the party suspected were mercenaries. The noble elf guard was holding the combined wealth of the group in a large pouch. It contained 1600cp, 1400sp, 4 onyxes, 2 moonstones and 1 star rose quartz. They put the pouch into the portable hole.
Finally, they explored the rooms that the western passageway led to. It first brought them into the ettin lair. The lair was a filthy, stinky mess, with nothing whatsoever worth looting. Next, they followed a passage leading south out of the ettin lair, which rose 20 ft. as it went on. At the end was an open door leading into what they guessed was the quarters of the bedraggled elves. The NE corner of the room ended in a drop off, which must have formed the bluff they had seen when they first entered the cavern. It looked like a perch for archers. There was a weathered shrine in the room, with a likeness of a goddess. Borovik recognized the image as that of Eldath, a lake spirit who acted as the guardian of groves and watersheds. Nothing worth looting was found in the room.
Having explored the entire den, the party left the caverns and began their journey back to Altand. They found that the spiders had not yet repaired the damaged webs, so they were able to get back out of the spider territory without alerting any more of the dastardly creatures. Neega's ability to remember terrain allowed her to guide them back through the forest the way they came. Two and a half days later, they were back in Althand.
As they approached, the commander of the guards on the ground called to one of the guards under her command, "Go to the tree level and tell Warden Andraste that the adventurers have returned."
"We were afraid you would be killed," she addressed the party in elvish. "Did you find the dragon and its rider."
"We did," Mara responded, also in elvish, "The rider is dead, and the dragon has fled. We want to report to Galin before we return to Alagarthas' stronghold to give him a more detailed report."
The commander looked sad and said, "Galin isn't here anymore. Two or three days after you left to find the dragon's lair, a patrol sent from Prince Alagarthas rode up and arrested him for treason. They explained to us that Varis had informed the Prince that Galin betrayed other Misty Forest towns in order to save Altand. He has been replaced as the town leader by Andraste. You will need to report to her."
Mara translated what the commander had said for the rest of the group. Shortly thereafter, Andraste climbed down a ladder and ran to the party. "Were you successful?" she asked hopefully, in Common.
"Yes," replied Borovik. "We found the dragon's lair. We killed all the defenders in the lair, as well as the dragon's rider. We fought the dragon and, after we seriously injured him, he fled. We hope he left the Misty Forest for good.
"We did see a fair number of items we suspect were stolen from the Misty Forest elves that the dragon rider had claimed as his own. We left the items there so the elves can reclaim them. Neega will draw a map for you so you can take a crew out there."
Andraste nodded sadly and asked that the party join her for lunch in the center of town and give her the details. They climbed the ladders to the tree level and the townsfolk gathered to hear the tale of the defeat of the dragon.
"And the dragon rider, was he truly an elf?" asked Andraste.
"Yes," replied Borovik. "We found his journal in the caverns, and it revealed that he was Neronvain, one of King Melandrach's own sons."
A gasp went through the crowd.
"That can't be!" exclaimed Andraste, "Neronvain has been dead for many years!"
"You never found his body, did you?" asked Kellen.
"No, we just assumed he was dead because he disappeared after being exiled from the court," Andraste responded, knitting her brows.
Borovik continued, "The journal described how he joined the Cult of the Dragon and became associated with the green dragon. It also describes his attacks on Misty Forest towns to accumulate treasure for Tiamat's hoard."
"After all that has happened to us, now we find out the King's own son visited such misery and destruction on us," Andraste sighed. "Well, we know that you will have to get this information to the Prince as soon as you can. But please rest here for the day and return to him in the morning."
That evening Neega drew the map to the cavern so that the townsfolk could begin removing stolen items. The next morning, they saddled up their horses and set out back to Prince Alagarthas' stronghold.