===== Chapter 4 =====
Dragons & Dungeons
The following day, we asked around and got more information regarding the job Eliander mentioned to us the day before. It had to do with goblins handing out poisoned apples to unsuspecting travelers. People were dying as a result of it, so the City Watch wanted someone to put a stop to the whole operation. The job seemed easy enough, so we gathered some supplies before heading out.
I bought myself a couple more Potions of Healing since my team, namely Octavious, fancied fighting up close and personal which got them constantly injured. In addition to that, the group decided to invest in some horses for faster travel while on land. I had no need for a horse, but the others pressured me into using some of my money to pay for one anyway. I couldn't afford a horse with the money I had, so I borrowed some from Destan to cover the rest of the cost. After spending a good portion of the money we had earned, we managed to get three horses complete with saddles and riding gear. I had some experience riding horses, but I was by no means an expert equestrian. Once we were all ready to go, we got on our horses and headed out.
The journey to the Dreadwood was going to take a couple of days. I was riding by myself while Octavious and Destan were riding on one, and Riardon and Oceanus riding on another. As we were exiting town, we happened to pass by the Leap, a morbid location well-known to all the locals. It consisted of an outcropping of rock located high up, around a hundred or so feet above a pool of churning water. When a person drowned at sea, their loved ones sometimes went there to leap into the water below. The fall usually wasn't fatal as the water was clear of rocks, and most of the time the people who jumped managed to swim ashore to dry land. We caught glimpse of a woman there about to jump and figured it was Claudius' wife, even though Claudius didn't die by drowning at sea.
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The two days of travel to get to the Dreadwood were uneventful, and we eventually arrived at our destination without a hitch. In the middle of the road we were traveling on, there was a giant crack or fissure in the ground. That was where we were told to go, so we figured we were in the right place. We led the horses off to the side of the road and got off, proceeding onwards on foot after securing them to a tree. I had Octavious stay back to mind the horses until we got back from scouting ahead. He was a bit annoyed but complied without too much fuss.
The rest of us approached the chasm and noticed several stone pillars. One of them had a rope tied around it. There was also a lot of graffiti written on the pillars, most of it in different languages that I couldn't understand. Destan went over to the rope and saw that it went down into fissure below. He didn't see anything alive down there, so he tugged on it to make sure it was secure then began climbing down. I looked back to where Octavious was and gestured for him to wait there. He waved back and remained by the horses, leaning against the tree as he put his hands in his pockets. I gave him a nod before following Oceanus and Riardon down the rope after Destan.
It was much darker in the depths of the chasm than up top where the sunlight was more prevalent. Since we could all see in the dark, I told everyone not to light any torches. I figured it was best if we could keep our presence hidden for as long as possible, at least, until we knew what we were up against. Destan took the lead, and we proceeded down a set of stone stairs.
At the bottom, we found what looked to be some sort of stone ruins. It was an old, dilapidated citadel of some sort, and it sank when the fissure in the ground opened up. Towards the entrance, we saw what looked to be bodies lying all around. Seeing that as not a good sign, we continued on with caution. When we got closer, we noticed that the dead bodies were goblins. It looked like there was some sort of battle there, but all we saw were goblin bodies. We also found a trap door with two skeletons at the bottom along with another goblin body.
The area was quiet so far, so we moved forward and entered the citadel. We had to climb up over a ledge to get to the entrance, but it wasn't too difficult. The first room we came upon was large and circular, and like the courtyard outside, was filled with dead goblins. We kept our weapons at the ready as we went over to investigate the corpses.
Looking around, I went over to one of the goblins by the wall. It was impaled by a spear and stuck to the wall, but I didn't recognize the origin of the weapon. I then noticed runes inscribed on the wall behind the body, but I couldn't read it. It looked like Draconic, but I wasn't sure. I beckoned the others over to see if they could read it, but unfortunately, none of them knew Draconic either. Seeing as we couldn't make heads or tails about the runes, we move on to investigate the rest of the room.
By that time, Octavious had grown bored of waiting and went off on his own to regroup with us. When I saw him saunter in, I was a bit irritated that he disobeyed me like that and left the horses unattended, but I got a hold of myself and let it go. He'd always been that way, so I should've known better than to think I could control him. I just let him do as he pleased, since he was a grown man after all and not the puny little kid I used to know.
I went over to one of the doors in the room and checked to see if it was locked. I gently turned the handle and found that it was unlocked. I notified the others and they gathered around me, figuring that was as good a place to start as any. We carefully opened the door and found a hallway on the other side. Riardon thought he heard the sounds of feint crying coming from the end of it. That didn't seem reassuring, so we prepared ourselves for anything. As we went down the hallway, the sound got louder, and we could all hear the whimpering.
At the end of the hallway, we entered a room that appeared to be the source of the noise. There was a large cage, a bedroll, a campfire, a bench, and a makeshift tent. We didn't see anyone around at first, but the noise seemed to be coming from the tent. We all exchanged concerned looks and readied ourselves for whatever lurked inside.
Octavious took the lead and went over to the tent, pushing aside the flap and finding a lone kobold there. The kobold was sleeping and seemed to be having a nightmare, so he nudged him awake. After waking up, the little kobold said that goblins had taken their baby dragon, a wyrmling named Calcryx. The kobold, Meepo, was the keeper of the dragon and solely responsible for its wellbeing and caretaking. Unsure of what to do, Meepo volunteered to take us to his leader, a female kobold by the name of Yusdrayl. We had no idea what was going on, so we reluctantly followed the little guy further into the ruins.
It didn't take us long until we found ourselves in what appeared to be a throne room. There were more kobolds around and some of them had weapons, so we guessed they were the guards. At the end of the throne room, we found a female kobold wearing tattered white robes and sitting on a stone throne. The throne had a stone statue of a dragon on it, and it looked like there was a key in the dragon's mouth. Meepo brought us directly to Yusdrayl then sheepishly went silent.
Yusdrayl addressed us all and asked what we were doing in her domain. She already had a problem in the form of goblins taking their god away, so she didn't need another. We reassured her that we meant no harm and that we were investigating an issue regarding the goblins and poisoned apples. Yusdrayl thought for a moment, but she was unfamiliar with anything related to that. She just told us that she and her kin hated the goblins and wanted them gone. I guess they were the ones who were battling with the goblins at the front of the ruins.
While Yusdrayl had our attention, she offered to give us a reward if we were able to find their dragon and return it to them. Dealing with dragons wasn't my specialty, but the others figured since we were there, we might as well keep an eye out. We took the job and told her we'd do our best to return the wyrmling if we happened to come upon it. She thanked us and warned that an outcast was the leader of the goblins. We didn't know what that meant, but we kept that in mind. Before we left, she told us that Meepo would be accompanying us, since it was his fault that the dragon was captured by the goblins. Upon hearing that, Meepo didn't look so enthused about having to come with us, but since it was his leader commanding him to do so, he didn't say otherwise. After talking with Yusdrayl, we left the throne room with Meepo leading the way to where he thought the goblins might've went.
Once we were far enough away from the throne room, Meepo began talking to us about his situation. Since he was much smaller when compared to his brethren, and a bit dim-witted, he was constantly bullied and picked on. Yusdrayl made him the dragon keeper because of that, and he hated the job. He feared the wyrmling and it always scratched and attacked him when he tried to carry out his duties. It was no wonder we found him crying like that all by himself. Poor baby.
As we were making our way through the ruins, we encountered a trapped door that we failed to notice. Octavious and Riardon triggered a trap which activated a swinging scythe that came out of nowhere. They got hit by it, but thankfully their wounds weren't serious. Meepo said he hadn't been that way before and wasn't aware of the trap. Stepping back from the door, Destan then used his magic to open the door safely for us to pass through.
Inside the room, there were five sarcophagi, three on one side and two on the other. There was also an altar at the back that had some items placed on top of it. Sensing valuable treasure to be had, Riardon and Octavious rushed in to claim the items first for themselves. As soon as they grabbed the items off the altar, the sarcophagi all opened up and skeletons came climbing out. Looking back, we should have surmised that something was amiss, but unfortunately, my comrades were just too eager to find loot. Seeing the skeletons begin to shamble about, we acted quickly and took care of them.
As soon as the fighting was over, Riardon and Octavious took a closer look at the items they took from the altar, curious to see why the skeletons were so eager to protect them. Octavious found a flask, but it was already filled with a curious liquid. After some investigation, he determined it was a Potion of Fire Resistance. Since he was already resistant to fire due to his tiefling heritage, he gave the flask to Destan.
Meanwhile, Riardon had found himself a mysterious whistle. After wiping the mouthpiece, as if that did anything to properly clean it, he gave it a blow to see what it did and watched as one of the skeletons in the room "came back to life". We immediately raised our weapons, but the skeleton wasn't doing anything. It appeared that the whistle had put the skeleton under Riardon's command, so that was pretty interesting.
Before moving on, I went over and investigated a curious looking dragon fountain. There was an inscription on the front that was written in Draconic, so I had Meepo come over to translate it for me. Right after he read the inscription aloud, a bright liquid began to spew forth from the dragon's mouth into the catch basin directly below. It looked like lava, but it didn't give off any heat. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it was actually a Potion of Fire Breathing. Once I told the others, Destan came over and offered me his Potion of Fire Resistance. He wanted to empty out his flask and replace it with the potion from the fountain. I said sure, and he took out an empty potion bottle before pouring the flask's contents into it. After handing me the potion, he filled his flask with the fountain's liquid. After he was done with that, we moved on.
Meepo continued to lead the way, and we entered a musky corridor. From there, we went through another door into a room and were ambushed by two goblins; though, they were no match for us, and we easily dispatched them. The others looted them, but they had nothing of worth on their person. Ahead of us, the floor was littered with caltrops, so we stopped while I went about picking them all up. I collected about two hundred of them and kept them in an empty burlap sack I had with me. Once the path forward was clear, we continued on and found ourselves at the back of some practice archery range.
There were three goblin archers at the other side of the room, and since we were still undetected, we decided to have some mischievous fun with them. Destan used his magic and created a dense fog, pushing it around the corner we were hiding behind and filling the archery range. While he was doing that, Octavious used his Thaumaturgy spell to say creepy things and make the bonfire the goblins were huddled around bigger. Lastly, Riardon still had his skeleton thrall following us, so he sent it in to attack the group.
Once the skeleton emerged from the mist and began attacking one of the goblins, Destan dispelled the fog and we advanced on their position. The goblins were completely frightened and fled, though, the one that the skeleton was attacking was left behind in the panic. Octavious moved ahead and finished it off with a swift unarmed strike.
From the archery range, we moved on and came upon a locked door. We figured that was where the goblins had fled to, so Riardon went up to it and bashed it open using brute force. To our surprise, we didn't find the goblins but instead three captive kobolds and a battered gnome in a cage. Riardon took the initiative and stepped inside to free the kobolds. Once they were allowed to leave, they hurried out the door without even stopping to talk to Meepo on the way out. We the kobolds out of the way, we then turned our attention to the gnome and went over to him.
Destan went up to the cage and began talking with the gnome, wondering how he came to be imprisoned in the cage. The gnome said his name was Erky Timbers, but he didn't seem to comprehend what was going on. I think he was hallucinating or something, because he didn't seem completely aware of the reality of things. The gnome looked cramped in the cage, so Riardon used his immense monk strength and bent open the bars. Once he got them wide enough for Erky to get through, he exited the cage and stretched his limbs. All the while, he was rambling on about several different things. He mentioned that the goblins had others in captivity and that they feared someone named Belak. He continued on and said that Belak was a human outcast who tended to something called the Gulthias Tree. A lot of what he was saying didn't make any sense to us at the time, so we didn't give it much thought. Once he was freed, Erky decided to follow us as we continued on through the ruins.
In the next room, we found a storeroom of sorts with crates of questionable pies. They appeared to be meat pies, but what kind of meat, we weren't exactly certain. I didn't want to risk it by trying one, as did most of the others, but Meepo was more than willing to dig in. He grabbed one and immediately began eating it, remarking at how good it tasted. The contents of the pies were still very suspect, so I refrained from partaking in any.
Ignoring the pies, we ventured into the next room and were ambushed by five goblins, two of which were the same ones who fled from us earlier. We each took a goblin and defeated them one by one. That time, there were no survivors, and we were able to continue on unimpeded. Since Meepo hadn't been that far into the ruins, we had him hang behind with Erky as we took point from then on.
Eventually, we came upon a room that we suspected to have several more enemies inside. We heard lots of voices from the other side, so we readied ourselves to catch them all by surprise. When we were ready, Octavious knocked open the door using a spell, and we all stormed in. We spotted an elderly goblin and four hobgoblins acting as his personal guard. I wanted to keep the elder goblin alive, but unfortunately the others killed him before I could interrogate him. Luckily, though, we did manage to capture one of the hobgoblins alive, so I guess that was better than nothing.
The hobgoblin that was still alive was knocked out cold, so while he was unconscious, I searched around for anything to tie him up with. I was able to find some leather belts and a bit of rope, so I used all that to secure the hobgoblin's wrists behind his back. While I was taking care of the prisoner, the others began looting the dead bodies and a chest they found. They divided the gold they found between us all and I got 57gp, though, I gave 25gp of it to Destan to pay him back for lending me money to buy the horse.
When everyone was ready to continue on, I crouched down and slapped the prisoner across the face to wake him up. The hobgoblin stirred awake and glared at me as I stood up next to him. I tried to interrogate him, but the hobgoblin only spoke Goblin, so I had Riardon interpret for me. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin wasn't cooperating with me and just said that he wanted to fight me one-on-one. I found his challenge amusing, so I agreed to fight him in unarmed combat- just me versus him. I wasn't simply a pretty face; I had brawled quite a bit with my comrades while in the marines, so I knew how to fight. I had Riardon remove his bindings and prepared for our match, clenching my hands into fists as I took a fighting stance. Once the hobgoblin was free, he looked to me and charged recklessly. I just smirked and socked him right across the cheek with a solid punch, knocking him out once more. His limp body fell flat onto the ground, and he was completely out. I was rather disappointed by his poor showing, but hopefully I had made my point to make him more cooperative.
I went over to the hobgoblin and restrained his wrists once more using the rope and belts. I then rolled him onto his back and smacked him again to wake him back up. After he came to, I had Riardon translate for me as I got the hobgoblin to give us some useful information. Seeing as he was thoroughly beat, just having been knocked out by a half-elf girl half his size, he began cooperating and told us what we wanted to know. He told us where the kobolds' wyrmling was, so we hauled him to his feet and had him lead us there.
We remained cautious as we kept the hobgoblin at the front of our group, keeping a look out for any potential signs of a trap. Eventually, our prisoner led us to a door and stopped, saying the wyrmling was being kept there in that room. If there was indeed a baby dragon on the other side of the door, we kept the hobgoblin positioned right in front of it as Octavious used his Thaumaturgy spell to open the door. Once it was open, Riardon pushed the hobgoblin inside, and the white dragon wyrmling appeared.
The wyrmling was certainly not happy to say the least about someone intruding into her lair, so she immediately attacked the hobgoblin and killed him before turning her attention to us. We tried to calm the wyrmling down and told her we meant it no harm. She restrained itself from attacking us for the moment, but she was still rather irritated about seeing us at her doorstep. We tried to get Meepo to talk to the dragon, but he didn't budge from the back of our group, cowering in fear behind someone. He kept saying that the dragon wanted to kill him, and he didn't want to go near her. Since Meepo was of no use to us, we decided to handle things on our own.
We continued to talk with Calcryx, but the dragon was not being cooperative. Since she was in her adolescent stage, and being a dragon to begin with, she was rather stubborn, and we were having a hard time trying to get her do what we wanted. We said she was free to return to the kobolds, but she didn't want to leave her new home in the room she was in. She wasn't happy being the kobolds' captive and hated it back there. Instead, she wanted us to be her slaves and serve her for the rest of our lives. We weren't about to agree to that, but we played along just until we got the dragon to start doing what we wanted. We strung her along, saying that we'd do what she wanted and such.
To start things off, Calcryx said she wanted meat and a lot of it. Thinking for a moment, we then remembered all the odd pies we found in one of the storerooms. We looked to Oceanus and told him to bring back as many as he could find. We figured that if we could get Calcryx to eat her fill, she'd be a bit more cooperative and receptive to our requests. While Oceanus was getting the food for Calcryx, we told Meepo to make himself useful and tell the rest of his "friends" that we'd found their missing dragon.
Little by little, Oceanus returned with an armful of pies and carefully presented them to Calcryx. The wyrmling dug into the offering and devoured them in little to no time at all. While she was eating, the rest of us discussed what to do with her. Since she wasn't going to go back to Yusdrayl's tribe, we figured we'd set her free outside or something. We weren't too keen on being her servants, but perhaps if she was set free, she'd forget about us and go off on her own. After Calcryx had her fill of pie, we talked with her about getting her out of the ruins.
It took some heavy negotiating, but we eventually got Calcryx to consider leaving her room within the ruins. We asked her if she knew her mother or where she was, and she said she didn't, so we lied and told her we probably knew where she might be. That was enough to entice the dragon to come outside with us, though, she wanted us to bring her treasure hoard with her. After getting permission to enter her lair, we quickly went about gathering all her treasure which included a jade dragon-shaped figurine, a crystal goblet, and 24 pieces of fine silverware. Someone asked what we were going to tell Yusdrayl, but we decided to deal with that if the time ever came. Once we had everything packed away, we began making our way to the front of the ruins. Calcryx followed behind us, though, she was impatient and quite vexed by the total affair, not fully trusting us yet.
On the way out, we ran into a group of kobolds that we assumed were part of Yusdrayl's tribe. We attempted to explain the whole situation to them, but Calcryx made that very difficult. Remembering what it was like being in their captivity, she charged ahead of us and attacked the kobolds, killing them all with a frost breath attack. Not wanting to get caught up in a larger mess, we ushered Calcryx onward and quickly made our way out of the ruins before more kobolds showed up.
Once we were outside, we climbed the rope which was still attached to the column and escaped the chasm. Using her wings, Calcryx just flew up out of there and met us by the stone columns after we had all climbed out. Octavious was looking a little beat, so I patted him on the back and used a spell to heal him up a bit. While I was doing that, Erky bid us all farewell and thanked us for freeing him before taking his leave.
Now that we were finally out of the ruins, we gathered around Calcryx and tried to convince her to head north towards the mountains. That was where we said her mother was probably located, but of course, we had no idea. We told her to go on ahead since we'd just slow her down and annoy her, then we'd meet up with her at a later time. Unfortunately, Calcryx wasn't buying our lies and refused to go. Despite being free to do as she pleased, she still wanted us to serve her and do her bidding. She was a spoiled brat and I then knew why the Order had put dragons on the kill-list. They were selfish and evil, only thinking about themselves and their greed. Having had enough of our falsehoods and trickery, Calcryx turned on us and attacked.
Even if Calcryx was just an adolescent wyrmling, she was still a very dangerous threat. I had to be on my guard if I wanted to survive, and I also had to keep an eye on Octavious to make sure he fared okay as well. It was a good thing I healed him using my magic earlier, or else he'd be a lot worse off during the fight. We all worked together and fought off Calcryx, having no other choice but to defend ourselves using lethal force. Octavious wanted to spare the dragon and somehow convince it to leave, but there was nothing that we could've done. In keeping with the Order's prime directives, the creature had to be put down for the greater good. I took aim with an arrow and loosed it right into the dragon's eye, killing her as it pierced right into her head. Octavious was visibly perturbed that I had killed her, but he didn't say anything. I just let out a sigh and retrieved my arrows, not worrying over what was already done.
After Calcryx had been taken care of, we took a moment to rest and gather ourselves. I went over to Octavious and healed some of his wounds using my magic. We briefly exchanged words, and after that, I went over to the dragon to gather some samples to send back to the Order. I used my dagger and managed to pry off five ice dragon wyrmling scales. Destan was also interested in the dragon and went about foraging its corpse for whatever he could find- scales, organs, etc. While he was doing that, and while everyone was taking care of their own thing, I took out my notebook and jotted down some notes regarding our encounter and ensuing fight with Calcryx. We also took some time to split up Calcryx's treasure hoard, and I received the jade dragon-shaped figurine and six pieces of fine silverware (two forks, two spoons, and two knives).
Since Calcryx was dead, we decided to head back into the ruins and at least notify Yusdrayl of the news. On the way back to the throne room, we happened to pass by Meepo in a hallway. For some reason, Octavious was not happy to say the least about seeing Meepo. He picked him up and pushed him against the wall, bullying him for a brief moment before dropping him to the floor. We continued on and passed by Meepo without as much as a word. I pitied the little guy, but there was nothing I could do for him at the moment.
Upon making it back to the throne room, we approached Yusdrayl who was seated upon her stone chair. We expressed our condolences about the kobolds Calcryx had killed, and she said it couldn't have been helped. However, when we told her we killed Calcryx, she was very much distraught and disappointed at the turn of events. She didn't want to hear anymore from us, telling us to leave and never come back. I guess it was to be expected, and I wasn't sure what we were trying to accomplish. So, after telling her the news, we decided to leave her and her tribe alone and continue with the goblin situation regarding the poisoned apples. You know- our original reason for being there.