Day 69: Moonday the 26th, Neth, 4707
Jonathan, Faunra, and Dame Rebekah were all outside the house door and Bailey was barking when Savah and I woke up. I headed down stairs and let them all in. The all went up to the common room and sat down while I made coffee and breakfast. Savah quickly got dressed and joined everyone in the common room. When I got back in, everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves, despite what we were going up against. I brought out the breakfast and coffee and Dame Rebekah noted that she had talked with Faunra after I had gotten off the radio, and that they had discussed what kinds of incantations to prepare.
Faunra spoke up and indicated that it wasn't really a good hope to have a spell that can be resisted by strength of body, or the evaded by deftness of body, or even force of will, as dragons are notorious in their ability to resist such magic effects if they even affect them at all. Just before I was about to ask what was a good idea to prepare Faunra continued. Faunra noted that the best spells to prepare in such an event were those that would benefit the group more, to either reduce or prevent damage from the creature's breath weapon, or make our attacks easier to hit, or those that did not have the ability to be resisted. In that mind, Dame Rebekah and Faunra had come up with a solution that they thought would suffice, as long as we did not need much magic beforehand.
Faunra said that we had developed a large amount of one use magical items that we could focus on using up before we get there. Dame Rebekah noted that we could also focus on the less spell based effects that we had in the group. Jonathan said that he was ready, and that our guide would be at Wisher's Well waiting for us. I got dressed and put all of my gear on. When I was fully ready, I used some chemicals that I had fabricated while I was working in the shop yesterday to coat my armor and shield. With any luck, it would work to neutralize the acid of the breath weapon when the time came.
I headed back to the common room and everyone was up and ready to go. Savah walked up to me and we embraced for a while before I said that I hoped to be back by the end of the day. Savah wished me luck again and said that I better make it back. I smiled and we all headed down to the garage. I got on my bike, Faunra got on hers, and Jonathan laced up his boots. Dame Rebekah was there astride her Pseudo-Pegasus.
We all started off and quickly got up to speed. After almost ten minutes, we were at the Wisher's Well. We pulled up so quick that the guide was still sleeping against the side of the tower. Jonathan cleared his throat and the young farmer snapped awake. He stammered a bit and then introduced himself as Nolan the Thatcher. Apparently he was practicing his trade when one of the events happened and he saw the beast fly off with a goat. I noted that he was going to have to ride with one of us, as we could travel far faster than he could.
Nolan got on the back of my bike and pointed out directions to me. We rode along the farm roads until we got to Biston's Pond. I motioned for everyone to stop, which they figured out after I started to slow down. I relayed to everyone what Madame Mvashti had told me the day before about spirits that could not rest. Dame Rebekah noted that we could try to find a druid somewhere to help us in the future, but that now was not the time. I acknowledged what she said and told them that I was just trying to relay information that I had been given to everyone. The group accepted my reasons and we quickly rode on up to the Tors.
Nolan told us that this was as far as he was willing to travel, and that he didn't really know where it was beyond here. We all slowed down and he hopped off my bike. Jonathan talked to him for a bit and they parted amicably. I asked everyone what directions they thought that we should go, and Jonathan literally sniffed the air before indicating that we should head North West of our position into the hilly Tors named for someone called 'Task". Dame Rebekah picked up on some remains that looked like they were dropped from up high, and we made our way to a small moss covered cave, before which a statue was placed.
We parked the bikes and Bucepherous off a little way back from the statue and I went to inspect it while everyone else was looking around. Before I could say anything a pair of goblins came rushing out of a section of moss, wielding rudimentary polearms. Before I could blink, Faunra had dropped the first one with three feathers in the things neck and shoulders. I rushed forward to engage the second one, relying on how weak the goblins from before were. Even though I struck it with a good solid hit it just snarled at me. It tried to slash at me with its polearm, but glanced off my new improved armor. Before I could counter its attack, Dame Rebekah came through and lopped off its head with her fantastic sword.
Everyone came up together where Dame Rebekah and I were, and we all noted that these goblins were tougher than the ones we were used to fighting. I recommended that we go cautiously through the moss curtain to make sure that there was not any waiting for us inside. Everyone agreed, and we dragged the bodies in with us. We looked around and found that there were two filthy mats in the cave. I focused my eyes to check to see if there were any ambient magical energies, and found that among the gear that the goblins had, were two magical potions and four arrows. I told everyone such, and it was determined that the potions where potions of healing, and the arrows were enchanted flaming arrows.
We distributed the potions and arrows around, and Jonathan took the time to ensure that there was nothing that the goblins could pick up to use behind us. We looked around the room further and saw that there was a large pair of double doors. I crept up carefully and Jonathan went with me. We inspected the doors and listened to them. Jonathan noted that he heard running water on the other side but no goblins. I didn't find any traps, so Jonathan used his telekinetic powers to open the doors and we rushed in.
We were confronted with a very square room with two other exits. One of which was a door to the east, and the other was a cavern to the North West. In the center of the room was a large magical fountain. I asked the rest of the group which way they wanted to go, but Dame Rebekah seemed to be in a daze. Jonathan asked her what was wrong, and she noted that the fountain has blessing on it, that if one offers a gold to Desna, the goddess of fortune and travel, that they will be blessed in kind when they drink. I shrugged and tossed a gold into the well, and took a drink before anyone could stop me.
A sudden feeling came over me as if I knew that I could pin a bullseye now, at least for a short period of time. I told everyone else that they should do the same. Jonathan followed up behind me, made the offering, and proclaimed that he felt like he was much luckier in avoiding being hit. Faunra followed up behind him and made an offering like we had. After she had drunk, she proclaimed that she felt like she might be able to resist effects better than before. Dame Rebekah paused for a minute before I told her that I was certain that her goddess wouldn't take affront of her acknowledging that an allied goddess had dominion over the fields that she had dominion over. Dame Rebekah tossed a gold in, and took a drink. She proclaimed that she felt that like Faunra did, that she could resist anything with the help of her goddess.
Jonathan stopped us and noted that he heard the chittering of more goblins from that north west corner. I whispered to everyone asking if they thought that it would be better to try to take them on now or if we should ensure that we are not flanked by another group. Uniformly, they all decided to ensure that we would not be flanked. We silently opened up the door to the south east to reveal a chamber bathed in red light. There were a pair of stone statues on either side of a dusty alter with a Darkwood and Platinum Coffer on top of it. I noticed that the two statues on either side of the altar glowed with magic of some sort.
We shut the door behind us and the statues called out "Approach with humility and live." Jonathan started moving forward but I stopped him. I noted that there was a trap, as the jaws of the statues showed signs of pitting, and there was a distinct pitting effect to the stones around us. He asked me what my recommendation was, and I told him that I could try to disarm both of the statues, but that it might be quicker for us to just go through the other door and have him lift up the coffer with his powers. I told him that I didn't know how far the acid might spread, so it might even damage the coffer, so he asked if I could try to disarm it.
I had everyone go to the far end of the room while I got to work. For a lot of magical effects, this place relied on mechanical triggers and such. I managed to work a piton in between two of the floor plates in such a way that it could be pulled out and instantly reset the trap. I figured that this would be the best. I then had Jonathan lift up the coffer and bring it to us. It didn't have a magical aura, but the rainbow wood wand inside did. I handed it to Faunra, and she noted that it was a wand of resist energy. A vital spell in wand form that we had thoughtfully prepared several times between the crew. Ah well, such is life, right? At least now Dame Rebekah can use that divine energy to heal us if needed.
On a lark, I gave the wand a swish and said "Industria Resistere", and I could feel magic flow over me. Everyone was taken aback, not the least of which myself. I tired the same again and touched Jonathan and the effect travelled to him as well. Faunra noted that we should probably stop using it until we are closer to the dragon. I nodded and handed it Dame Rebekah. A nice little talent to have up my sleeve for when times get rough, I guess.
We continued on into the next room and I saw that which I had been dreading since I had heard about it. There in a mass of webs along the back wall of this room, was a GIGANTIC BLACK WIDOW SPIDER the size of a horse. I would swear that it even had little horns on its head. Faunra quickly set loose three arrows into it, and it didn't even flinch as the electricity coursed through its body from her arrows effects. Faunra cursed as she noted that it was immune to electricity. I didn't do anything this whole time. I panicked. I froze. This thing COULD NOT BE. NOPE. Jonathan blasted it with a piton and it still DID NOT FALL. Dame Rebekah ran forward and ignored the grasping mandibles as it latched down on her armor. She swung her sword and sliced deeply into the vile things body. It dropped.
In the webs there was a dead goblin. This goblin had a magical wand and a potion on them, along with a wooden toy dragon. Jonathan grabbed each of these and Faunra noted that the wand was a wand of a spell that she knew that could be used only to damage another creature. I kept my hands away from it. She also figured out that the potion would also simulate another of the spells that she had prepared for the final battle. A spell to cause her image to distort making it harder to hit the recipient. I thought it would be most useful for Jonathan to have it, since most of our plans revolved around him being up front and center. Everyone agreed and we torched the web and the spider.
There was a passageway to the north so we took it. There was a message along the wall, written in common. It said, ""The goblins fear the wyrm and do not venture through the crypt to its lair. Its breath is death." Even I knew that wyrm meant Dragon. And relayed as much. There was a pillar beyond this fantasy tagging and it had magical symbols along it's glowing length. With barely a thought, Faunra declared that the pillar would allow the one who touched it to have the ability to breath water temporarily and an increased ability to swim, but only one person. I shrugged and we moved on.
In the next room, we large pond. Before we even moved into the room, Jonathan was pointing out a monstrosity in the water. It looked like a fish with four tentacles sprouting from its back. It saw us and the water started rising in the room until it could easily reach us. Jonathan reflexively lashed out with another piton and slammed it into the body of the fishy monstrosity. I quickly unslung my rifle, targeted the thing, and fired. Again, I'm not quite sure how, but many of these things react to my shots like this was Hollywood. It got pushed back at least five feet from where it was swimming. Then it reacted.
The thing swam up quickly and tried to bite down on my leg. This thing was the size of a German Shepherd and was definitely stronger than me. It didn't penetrate the armor though, and for that I was extremely glad. Dame Rebekah slashed it with her sword and retreated back a good distance after she heard Faunra claim that it exploded when it died. Faunra, for her part, used her new wand to zap it with magical force while retreating back herself. My leg was still in the thing's mouth when I looked at Jonathan. He shrugged and launched another piton at it.
Then my world was immersed in water. I had luckily maneuvered my shield between my upper body and the thing's head such that I was spared a lot of the blow. It still hurt like hell. Like I had just been sprayed over every crack and crevice of the armor by a high pressure washer. My armor was in okay condition, but I still focused my energies to mend everything. Especially after having been immersed in water like that. It turns out that most of the water was refocused by my shield away from me, so yay me. I don't know that I ever want to deal with fish with tentacles again.
Across the receding pond was some glittering material. Jonathan was kind enough to lift it over to us while Dame Rebekah offered me a potion to take the edge off of the damage. We dried ourselves off and took stock of the only way forward left in this room. It was a short cavern that we could heard more feuding coming from. I was amazed that they were fighting this long, but goblins did tend to get hyper-focused.
We crept up through the hallway until we got close enough to peek around the corner. Since there was no light in the room, Jonathan volunteered to take a look in. He crept up and looked in. He stayed there observing for a minute before he slinked back to us. He whispered that there were four goblins similar to the ones we had fought earlier and they were all fighting each other. There was another vicious goblin on a throne made from animal bones that was glaring menacingly at the feuding goblins. I asked the group if there was any item that we had that could make the fight easier, as it looked like it would be a long one, judging off of how the first goblin fight worked out for us.
Faunra said that she had a scroll for this, but only gave it so-so odds of helping. Dame Rebekah shrugged and said that she would take up a defensive position. Jonathan said that he would as well. Faunra got the scroll out and read it. Glittering dust exploded in the room and I heard curses from inside. I could tell that at least some of them succumbed to the surprise spell. Not enough however, as two of the goblins came rushing towards the group. They crashed into the bulwark that is Dame Rebekah and couldn't land a blow on the slippery pugilist that was Jonathan.
I took aim over my impromptu shield wall and fired a solid blast at the chieftain who had not moved from his chair. The pellet must have caught something in the air, or maybe it was the oil acting up again, but the pellet burst into flames as soon as it touched the goblin's skin and he hissed. Jonathan leapt into action, focusing his chi into his Siangham and absolutely wrecking the goblins in front of both Dame Rebekah and himself before throwing the enhanced weapon into one of the blinded ones. The Goblin on the throne then leapt behind his chair and I could hear him muttering something. Probably a spell of some kind.
The final standing goblin, who happened to be blind as well, had his polearm and was swinging it about indiscriminately, not anywhere close to the rest of us. Dame Rebekah decided to take action and charged the little pest. She knocked him out with just one vicious slash across the chest. That left just the chieftain. Before anyone could say anything, Faunra launched a pair of arrows at the throne that the goblin was hiding behind, absolutely skewering him. Jonathan looked around for a second and noted that the coast was clear. We looked back around the corner and found that the fountain room was just over there. Full Circle I guess.
Jonathan and Faunra went to work disarming all of the fallen, to prevent one from Michael Myers-ing us I guess. I focused my eyes again and found a lot of the same as the other goblins, more magical arrows, more potions, more armor, more gear. Looking around, we saw that there was a twenty-foot cliff up one side. Jonathan squinted a little and whispered something to behind his shoulder. Cytheria crawled out from underneath his robe's hood and flew up to the landing. She pushed off a rope and flew back down to us, to reside back underneath his hood. I asked him if he just did that to show off, and he shrugged. I slung my rifle back across my back and used the rope to climb up. With the assistance of the rope, we all made it up.
Once we were all together, we heard some rustling in the distance. Without much warning, three armored skeletons with vitriol in their eye sockets came rushing towards us. Jonathan took one out with the piton that was planted in the ground. The second one charged past us all to attack Faunra. Luckily, the armor held, but all she could do was punch it with her spiked gauntlet, to little effect. Getting the idea, I tried pistol whipping the thing. It worked better than her spiked gauntlet, but not by much. Dame Rebekah was rushed by the third one, but it too bounced off her armor. I was feeling better and better about myself with every avoided hit.
Dame Rebekah looked to reach for her sword, but then a positive wave of energy pulsed out from her. The skeleton that I had pistol whipped disintegrated and the one who had attacked Dame Rebekah looked to smoke a little. Jonathan followed it up with launching the skull from the first skeleton into the second, pulverizing them both. I remembered that the words on the wall, that the wyrm was beyond the crypt. I brought this up and noted that if we had preparations to make, we should probably make them.
I was given a potion that increased my strength, with the hope that I wouldn't end up needing it, Jonathan was given the potion that we had found here that caused a person's form to look blurry, and Faunra cast that spell on Dame Rebekah as well. Dame Rebekah blessed us all and used another spell to invoke the Favor of Iomedae upon her own attacks as well. Jonathan amped up his telekinetic field around himself to maximum levels, and drank another two potions, the first one hardened his skin and the second one turned him invisible. Both Dame Rebekah and I partook of the ones that hardened our skins and we all received protection from evil effects. We were all made invisible from other scrolls. I am sure that there were other effects that Faunra or Dame Rebekah activated, but I can't remember exactly what they were.
To any normal observer, there were four duplicate elven archers walking into that final room. Little did anyone know, but every single one of those was an illusion. When I thought about it, Faunra was wrapped under so many illusions that I didn't know that I would be able to tell her apart from any of her copies. I whispered that everyone should be ready for when I attack. That was when I heard what I could swear was a more sibilant version of Patrick Stewart speak out, saying, "I know where you are you filthy little rodents. How nice of you to bring my dinner to me. Maybe later I will dine on the winged horse you have outside. I wonder if it will taste more like goat or chicken?"
I entered the room and saw the pile of gold and gems in the corner of the room, and in the other corner waiting was a black dragon the size of a dog. It seemed to be a bit confused by the visible threats of the four elven archers. The problem was, the four archers would be in the vicinity of Faunra, and I could tell that the dragon knew something like this as well. Then I realized, almost all of the enchantments that we had used were being ignored. We were literally screwed here. It knew where we were and it wasn't afraid of us at all. I yelled out scatter as I brought my pistol to bear. Maybe the noise and sound could cause it some disruption? I then dove to the left, away from where I expected the group to go, if everything went according to plan. Honestly, with all of us being invisible, it was more of a hindrance to us than to the dragon. At least now I was visible to my party as well.
At almost the same time, I saw Jonathan appear from out of nowhere and launch another iron spike into the beast. It looked like this pissed it off, and it decided to take it out on the both of us. It adjusted to be back a little from the doorway and breathed acid in our direction. Jonathan, in some strange quirk of fate, managed to dodge the whole thing, while I managed to jump mostly out of the way. I could feel some burning as I got tagged a little by it, and it hurt like hell, but I knew that I couldn't stop to think about that.
I saw the dragon snap at thin air and I heard a crunch as I saw blood on the dragon's teeth. Then I saw Dame Rebekah's blade hack down into its body and it let her go quickly. She was on the other side of it, near the wall. Apparently, it had not thought of her as a threat, and had paid for that. I could smell the burning meat from where her sword had cauterized its own wound. Then I saw three arrows fly through the air and imbed themselves in the dragon's chest. The dragon slumped down and died instantly from those arrows.
Dame Rebekah, since she was closest, checked to ensure that it was dead, and it was. Jonathan, Dame Rebekah, and myself then wasted no time, skinning and parceling out the body. Waste not, want not, right? Well, when I was working on it, some of the heart's blood might have made its way into my mouth, quite accidentally mind you. Now I didn't gain an ability to understand birds or impenetrable skin, but I can feel magic roiling inside of me. Maybe now I can learn to cast spells like Faunra can?
We sorted out all of the different things that can be made from the corpse. Apparently Faunra was quite knowledgeable about all of the things that can be made from dragons. We had the skin which Jonathan had heard that Lars was looking for, the skeleton would be desired by Ilsoari for his collections and classes, and other organs can be used in alchemical/magical processes. Jonathan even offered to take the muscle meat as high end food for his restaurant. By the time the three of us were done, Faunra had made a pretty good accounting of what was in the hoard.
There were thousands of gold, silver, and copper coins. There were well over a dozen gemstones of differing quality, there was various other items of value from a gold decorated plate to a strange golden idol that I recognized as looking like something from the Cthulhu mythos, to a platinum statuette of Iomedae that Dame Rebekah immediately recognized as something that was supposed to be a centerpiece of the chapel in Magnimar. There was even a magical shield that much of the treasure was placed precariously on. When it was all said and done, this was a massive haul compared to what we had discovered in the goblin warrens we had infiltrated.
I asked everyone what we should do with everything, and Dame Rebekah noted that we should get back to my place before we start divvying up the spoils. I realized how stupid I was being and agreed. By the time we had loaded everything up into the various saddlebags, back packs, and other carrying items, we were just about at full capacity, before we would need to slow down anyway. We decided to take the way back fairly carefully.
Our decisions and what the gods had in store for us are two different things. We were riding north through the rest of the Tors, to make our way to the Lost Coast Rode when two giant javelins came launching into Bucepherous. One of them struck true, and wounded the mighty steed, while the other glanced off its armor. We all quickly stopped to assess the damage. These javelins were not quality but they were quite viscous. It was then that we saw a hulking monstrosity. It was almost twelve feet tall, and weighed over seven hundred pounds easy. I stared at us for a fraction of a second before roaring in a sound that could easily be mistaken for what a dire bear must sound like, then charging.
It made a dash straight for Dame Rebekah and her mount, roaring and raging all the way, stopping only ten feet away to bring down the biggest axe I had ever seen down on her collarbone. I winced as I heard cracking, but noticed that she was still alive, and without any missing limbs. Sure, there was blood on the axe, but with a hit like that, I was amazed that the armor had survived at all, let alone be strong enough to intercept a hit like that. Almost immediately after Dame Rebekah got hit, Faunra reacted. And to arrows were sticking out of the thing's shoulders. Then I noticed a piton sticking out of the thing's forehead, as Jonathan must have done his thing.
And before I could even react, Dame Rebekah had hacked at the thing's side with her enchanted sword with her good arm. With only fractions of seconds before the thing would react again, I whipped out my pistol and drew a quick bead and fired. I hit this thing directly in the steel horn it had developed just seconds before, driving it in further and causing a glazed look to go over the thing's face before it just dropped dead instantly. Jonathan ran over to Dame Rebekah and worked with her to remove the giant axe from the wound and instantly heal her using his power. He then did the same to Bucepherous. Dame Rebekah spat at the thing and declared that she hated ogres. This thing was an OGRE. Jonathan and Dame Rebekah asked me to utilize my special sight, and apparently the thing had a magical ring in addition to its magical cloak and axe. It even had potions on its person.
We packed up what we could from it and left it for the vultures, Dame Rebekah telling me that they worshipped an all-consuming force that was threatening to destroy the world, and that it was not only appropriate but that it was their preferred method of burial. I looked over her armor and found that against all odds, the armor wasn't a total waste. I used my mending cantrip on it and it was fixed right up. Luckily, the chest-plates were the part of the armor that was giving off the magical aura. The part that was damaged was the under-layer, and my mending power worked just fine.
By the time I was done with that, Faunra and Jonathan had squirrelled away all of this beastie's gear, and said that we should make haste to my house. I agreed and we rode the rest of the way with diligence and speed. It's kind of an oxymoron, but we made it work. After a trip that took half a day, we were back at the house. Savah came rushing out when she heard the commotion from the horse, two steam-cycles and madly running pseudo-werewolf entering the yard and Bailey barking like crazy. Savah rushed over to hug me, but I stopped her, noting that I had not ensured that the acid was fully neutralized.
I used my prestidigitation cleaning powers to ensure that I was clean of any remaining acid or gore before using my mending powers on my own armor and shield. Savah then rushed forward again, and this time I didn't stop her from embracing me. Jonathan, Faunra, and Dame Rebekah all started carrying things into the house, into the common room behind Savah's Shop. This was where she did most of her dealings with buying/selling the costlier and more obscure items. I helped carry things in as well as soon as Savah saw what was going on. It was a very large trove, all things considered.
Savah started looking at everything that we hauled in, and noted that there was no way that she could clear all of it here in Sandpoint. She immediately perked up with noting that it was a good thing that we all already had a trip planned to head to Magnimar. She added that since Vaeren would be covering the workshop and now the store, at least until we got back, we could make it there without issue and recoup everything that we can't convert here. Faunra, Dame Rebekah, and Jonathan all smiled. We set about piling all of the readily transferrable items into piles and seeing if there was anything that we felt would be good retention items.
First things first, we all as a group determined that we should return the statuette and the golden chalice to the Chapel in Magnimar. It is the right place for it to go, and they might be willing to offer us a break on services if ever we need them. After those were set aside, we looked into the various items that we counted out the coins and the gems/jewelry. All in all, we made roughly twenty-seven hundred gold pieces each from just the gems, coins, and such. That would honestly bankroll a fair way towards getting more of the school, or put a large portion into the parts for the generator. That would probably be the best bet really. Once we have stable power every day, I can make things more readily. Honestly though, I might be needing more firepower quicker if I have to deal with even tougher dragons or ogres, or even these tougher goblins.
We determined that Savah would sell off the remainder of the items that we had recovered when we all got to Magnimar, and then we could split up the proceeds from that. This was because Faunra would be busy with an issue of a newly encountered Rival in the area, and didn't want to risk losing to them for this, and everyone already had enchanted weapons and armor. I could possibly utilize my shield being enhanced with magic now that I thought about it, but it certainly didn't need to be such right now. I asked Faunra if she needed any assistance in this and she shook her head, saying that she mainly needed to head back home to deal with it.
I wished her safe travels, and she went out to get her bike. Dame Rebekah noted that she needed to head out to, since she had the longest distance to travel, and that she would take most of the trip with Faunra. Jonathan noted that he had to check back in at the Barghest and let Shayliss know that we were all fine. Savah told him that we would drop by later today. Jonathan told Savah thank you, and headed out. Savah then shut the door behind them and hugged me again. After a good long time, she relaxed and asked me to tell her everything.
After a good long story about how we did what we did, with Savah being mortified and amused at different times, I finished with the surprise attack by the Ogre. Savah laughed at my slaying of the ogre using Jonathan's previously launched piton and said that I bet that I never thought that I would be able to do that. I laughed as well and told her that I was fairly certain that I would never be able to do that again if the situation came up a second time. Savah noted that we were going to need more cargo capacity in the future if I was going to bring all manner of weapons and gear back home for her to sell. I told her that I could start work on that steam wagon, but it was going to require a lot of parts from Magnimar. Savah said that she could look into acquiring them after making the deals for the armor and weapons.
We spent some more time together before heading over to the Barghest for dinner. On the way, I dropped by Lars'. He was busy in the back and couldn't come up at first. I told the clerk that he should tell Lars that it is me and that I had a somewhat unusual request. The clerk then walked back and almost immediately Lars came rushing out. He asked me what kind of unusual request I had this time. I placed the dressed skin of the black dragon on the counter and told him that we needed eight pairs of gloves, eight belts, and eight pouches made, and that he could do what he liked with the rest of the skin. Lars' eyes opened wide and told me that he would immediately get to work.
The clerk went to stop him, saying that he would be putting off Titus' order of a new leather jerkin. Lars shushed him, saying that it wasn't every day that someone got the chance to work with Dragon hide, especially when it was as supple as this. He asked me when it had been harvested and Savah said that it was done within the last six hours. Lars quickly thanked us and was about to run back to his shop before I asked him to stop. He did and I went up to him and whispered a simple request, that he not make anything specifically for Titus with it. Lars smiled and nodded in return, without saying a word.
Savah and I headed out to the Barghest and Savah asked me what I had whispered to Lars. I told her that I had asked him to not make anything specifically for Titus with the hide. She laughed out loud for the rest of the way to the Barghest. When we got there, there was a crier out front announcing a limited time special, but not saying what the special was. When we went inside we found out. It was the black dragon. I was a bit uncertain about eating something that had actually talked to me within the past six hours, so I passed and just had my standard. Savah did have the dragon tail steak burger, and said that it was kind of acrid but was well balanced with the sweet that Jonathan had paired it with.
Jonathan came up to talk to us when he got a moment, as many people of the town were clamoring for the rare meal that Jonathan had acquired. Jonathan noted that he had decided to prepare something special for the four of us adventurers and that we could have it on the next trip. I thanked him and he had to go settle another dispute between other customers so Savah and I went back to eating our dinner. Savah noted that we should drop off the other item quickly and get back home. I agreed and we got up to head out when we saw Ilsoari come up and thank us for dealing with this menace.
I looked to Savah and shrugged, before asking him to come out of the Barghest with us to head to our bikes for just a minute. Ilsoari noted that he was waiting on his meal but that he had a few moments. He walked out to our bikes where Savah and I showed him the new addition to his collection. A Juvenile Black Dragon Skeleton. Ilsoari was grateful for the addition to his school and I told him that I would be writing what I could about black dragons when I got the chance. Ilsoari thanked us again, and we told him that we had to be off, but that we would drop the skeleton off at the academy on our way home.
We got on the bike and headed down to the Academy where Vaeren was just locking up. I asked if he had time to take a delivery before leaving and we handed him the black dragon skeleton. Savah told him that Ilsoari was expecting it, and that we were just dropping it off for him. Vaeren thanked us for this and Savah told him that if he was amenable, he'd also be looking over the store for a few days as well, come the twenty-ninth. Vaeren said that he would be ready, and Savah noted that if he wanted, he could stay in the guest room. Vaeren thanked us and we drove off.
When we headed back home, I went over to get Bailey and let them in. There was another decent hole at the end of the yard where Bailey had obviously dug and I looked down in it. There was a faint glint and I used my prestidigitation powers to slowly lift it up out of the pit. What Bailey had found was a gold anklet with bloodstone cabochons. I gave it a once-over with my magical sight and verified that it was not in fact magical or cursed. I brought Bailey into the house and took what Bailey found to Savah. Savah was overjoyed by the gift from our faithful hound. We decided to end our night and headed into the bedroom to get changed for bed.