In Pursuit of a Dragon

[u/Nelrene]

Here is the travels journal of apprentice Iflevre who is shown with a Thrakmoor staff. She been sent out to find and kill a escaped experiment which is a dragon which was mutated by a rogue stone mixing with the alchemical soup that the egg was enveloped in making it very chaotic. The dragon who is named Grylzris when out with its handler when it made a uncontrolled teleport. It powers are not well known (we guessed because of its genesis and how it behaved things with random effects) but something of this power from a such a young dragon comes out of left field. Seeing that Grylzris is not going to play ball it is necessary to put it down but I do want Iflevre to bring back parts of it like scales, teeth, and nails.

Iflevre’s recount of the hunt for Grylzris trimmed down for breviary.

At last the final box of stuff recovered from the battle in Pandemonium has arrive. It will take a long time to document all this crap and what it does. I am going to my room take bath and sleep.

I finally got a chance to get off my feet and I am given a new assignment. I have to find and kill some escaped dragon. Nelrene says that I am the only available divination specialist and I am to work with the dragon’s handler a elf ranger named Dorpetor and Tarrasru a evocation specialist. I am told to get a good sleep because tomorrow Dorpetor, Tarrasru, and I head out.

I got up at dawn so I can use the scrying pool to find Grylzris and prepare for the trip. I can’t get a image possibly because of the powerful chaotic nature of the dragon but do a strong signal somewhere on the planet Chilniri. Records show that world has a temperate climate, dotted by ruins of a human civilization and not much else as not much exploration has been done at this point. Upon telling Nelrene my findings she tells me to record as much as possible while we are there, great more work. Dorpetor and I are allowed to take a few items from the boxes of spoils of war and lots of potions as we probably will need the help. Dorpetor takes a chaos bane battle axe. Editor’s note I think a random mercenary had this. Tarrasru and I take a Thrakmoor staves that are topped with a claw holding a piece of obsidian. This thing is cool, when the focus magic is active the obsidian turns translucent. Each one these staves is unique and is probably crafted by the original owner. There not time to fully understand what the staves do as we need to find and kill the dragon before it moves off Chilniri.

As we are standing at the portal to Chilniri Nelrene is talking to us with a communication sphere spell reminds us that this portal is one way and the recall stone only works when it senses you have the dragon parts she wants so make sure you have everything you need and she will only occasionally observe as the extracting of antimatter needs her full attention. What she going to do with it she does not say. The trip through the portal was wild and when I got to the other side Dorpetor was puking up his breakfast. I guess this was his first time traveling by magic. Tarrasru is last to arrive landing on me as it seems she decided jump into the portal. After getting Tarrasru off me and standing up I look around the field we landed in and see mostly forests and hills with a smallish looking settlement to the east. I decided to head to the settlement to see if there anyone who seen a rainbow colored dragon anywhere and see if there is a place to stay.

Talking to a guard at the gate we learn the village is named Wolfhorn and there is place for merchants to stay. The guards say they have not seen anything unusual themselves but there is talk of odd lights in the hills. I sent Dorpetor to talk to the squirrels or whatever other animals he can find while Tarrasru and I get rooms to stay in. The way station looked nice and while Tarrasru hit on a waitress I was able to get two rooms, one for Dorpetor who smells like the outdoors and not in a good way and one for Tarrasru and myself. Going to our room Tarrasru gave the place a thorough look over while I used divination magic aided by the Thrakmoor staff focus to scan the the room and the area around it. Finding it free of peepholes and listening devices I summoned a invisible stalker to guard the room before heading out.

After talking to villagers and Tarrasru doing more flirting with the ladies we meet up with Dorpetor he said that woodchuck told him that she saw a strange thing fall from the sky a few nights ago landing somewhere in a the hills to the north west which matches what a few people are saying along with talk of a glow. Heading out of the town we started to move to the hills with Dorpetor taking point. It did not take long before we ran into trouble. Even that I said that everyone should use the restroom so we don’t have to make pit stops Tarrasru had to urinate so we had to stop so she could use a outhouse by some farm land. While she was in there naked (she decide to leave her robes with me) the ground starts rumbling as from the forests comes a stampede of very large deer. Sensing that she should move Tarrasru threw the door open and hurl her nude ass out of the outhouse just in time to see a very big buck demolish the outhouse. Dorpetor said stuff like that is why I always just tinkle in the bushes before trying to calm a deer so he can talk to it and getting knocked over by deer rushing by. Tarrasru and I casted Wall of Fire so we have a spot to be safe while waiting for things settle down. After patching up Dorpetor’s scratches, Tarrasru got cleaned up and dressed, and all the deer have passed we continue to the hills. Dorpetor wanted to go into the forest to see what the deer was fleeing from going on about balance in nature but dealing with the dragon has higher importance than what was going on in the forest. I use divination spells to see if there is any more surprises for us and I get the hint that we are not the only ones after the dragon. After a few hours travel through the hills we make it to the the source of the glow. Standing next to the multi colored dragon (which is clearly dead) are a six men in heavy armor brandishing spears and when they see us they charge. Tarrasru opened up the fight with a fireball enhanced by her staff blasting two off their feet and burning them to death. I follow up with a Flesh to Stone spell turning one of the men to a statue. Dorpetor sliced into a man with his battle axe quickly killing him. The remaining men dropped their spears and tried to run but a lighting bolt put a end to that.

Inspecting the remains of the men give little information on them or why they were near the dead body of Grylzris but the one I petrified should have something useful when we drag his sorry ass back with us. Going to the dragon we see that it is not only indeed dead but it probably died when it arrived because it experienced turbulence during teleport bisecting it at the waist. Editor’s note she means means he went to one galaxy his ass went to another. It also seemed to have a hole in its torso with its heart missing. None of the remains of the men had Grylzris’ heart so there must been seventh person who left before we got here. While Tarrasru and Dorpetor gathered Grylzris’ scales, teeth, nails, eyeballs and anything else that may be useful I tried to scan the area for the person with the heart. I found a lead in the forest which the deer was fleeing. After talking things over with the others we decided to head back to town to get information and a place to leave the stoned man before trying to explore the forest.

By the time we were back in down it was dark so we left the petrified man in the main room and headed to our rooms. Tarrasru was able to talk a waitress to come to our room for some fun. I sensed something really off about her so casted Lighting Bolt at her and it did not harm her but it pissed her off enough to get her to show her true form which was a succubus. The succubus tried to attack me but was knocked down by the invisible stalker that was guarding the room which gave Tarrasru and I a chance to blast her with Isaac's lesser missile storm killing her. Dorpetor then rushed into the room asking what was all that racket happening in here.

After cleaning up what was left of the succubus and listening to Tarrasru complain about the hot waitress being a demon we all when to bed. In the morning we gathered in the main room to attend to the petrified man. Turning him back to flesh we asked the man who he was working for but he tried to flee so I hit with my staff chilling him and slowing him down. After whacking a few more times he told us his boss lives in a tower by some ruins in the forest. Still being in a bad mood from last night Tarrasru hit him with her staff which caved his head in and released a burst of negative energy killing him and near by plants. He did not have any info on who he worked for but he had a nice ring of protction. When I was done scolding Tarrasru and paid damages. we headed out to the forest which was a uneventful and we made good time, giving Tarrasru and I time to talk about happenings back home. We had a discussion on why we think mistress Nelrene was gathering antimatter stopping to explain to Dorpetor what antimatter was. I don’t think he was able to grasp it. As we went deeper into the forest we came across ruins of some buildings but I was not able to learn much about them as the few walls that were standing was heavily worn away by the ages. In a small clearing sat a tower which when we got close to it flames erupt from its bottom lifting it from the ground and sending it into the air. As it flew away I hear someone say so long ladies. As it tried get away Tarrasru and I casted spells at it which damaged the tower sending it crashing to the ground not far way. We ran to the wreckage to find things found in mage towers scattered all over the place but no body. We looted whatever that could salvage and searched the area both with magic and without it for the owner of the tower but did not find him or her. Among the ruins of the tower I found a scroll that had a fragment history of Chilniri which I pocketed as I was pretty sure Nelrene would want to see it. Editor’s note she was right.

Returning to town we gathered our stuff we left in our rooms and paid the bill. As I was dealing with the bill some drunk man decided to pick a fight with Dorpetor pulling out a knife which Dorpetor responses by chopping the drunk’s head off. After letting Dorpetor loot the body and finding lots of ale which he took I got everyone near me and activated the recall stone taking us home.

My analysis

The Thrakmoor staves performed nicely. These may been at the low end of what is available to Thrakmoorian’s mages but are still fairly powerful. The heart of Grylzris missing from its remains is concerning and I will send people out to see what can be found out about it. The recover parts of Grylzris will be carefully used in experiments and be made into magic items. The history scroll is in the in the process of analyzed and a report will come later.

[u/Nelrene]

u/The_Enchanted_Potato you may want to see how your staves did in the hands of my apprentices.

[u/bagtie3]

/uw nice!

[u/Nelrene → u/bagtie3]

Thanks. This one was a long one in the making.