Session 7 - The One Where They Made Baby Noises At A Dragon

25th Oct 2020 19:00 - 22:30

In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 6 - Eleasias 7

Our "Heroes" decide to heroically rest outside the Fallen Fortress, at the top of the ravine, having allowed the rescued kobolds return to Yussi at the Kobold Den, along with the young goblin girl, Hersch, who they promised to take good care of and try to ensure the next generation of goblins and kobolds may have a better working relationship.

Meepo is rather critical of the number of rests our "Heroes" seem to take.

The elves volunteer to take watch, allowing the dragonborn and human to have a full night's rest. Nothing seems to emerge from the fortress overnight, though there was some movement in the trees in the other direction. Carro tries to wake Kandi up with a badly aimed rock. And fails. The movement ceases. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

Heading back into the Fortress, the group of decisive adventurers wonder whether they should head in a different direction this time, what with there being an unexplored door in the south west of the entrance tower. They eventually agree to stick with what they know, to the relief of Meepo who is keen to follow the 'trail' of Calcryx.

So the party head back through the fortress. They stop at a closed door which they are sure was previously left open by them. Cautiously, they head through, find nothing untoward other than a fresh scattering of straw on the floor, so Kandi heads further north. He spots a goblin in the distance, who looks like he is about to turn and run. Quick as a flash Kandi bolts after the goblin, hoping to stop him before he can inform others of their presence.

Unfortunately he doesn't pay any attention to where he is going, and steps onto a hunter's trap that was crudely hidden under the straw in the doorway. Crying in pain and unable to move, Kandi is stopped in his tracks. Tommy-Boy pries open the trap jaws to free Kandi, but the goblin is long gone. Our intrepid explorers decide to press on regardless, though even more cautiously.

Reaching the door that previously led to the caltrop-strewn corridor with goblin archers at the end, the group put their strategic planning hats on. With Carro and Mahtis hiding behind small piles of rocks, Kandi stands before the door, and Thomas proceeds to open the door carefully, shield raised. All have actions ready, but so, unfortunately, do the three goblins standing behind the low wall beyond, so it came down to who reacted quickest, and in this case, that was the goblins!

The three of them fired off arrows, before ducking behind their wall. Luckily their arrows missed, but the party had no one to aim at, so continued to ready their ranged weapons for when a goblin popped up again. Which they did. The first goblin popped up and was immediately brought down by the combined hits of Mahtis and Mr Covenant. Carro and Kandi let loose their reactionary attacks at the now dead goblin, allowing the other two goblins to fire at Kandi. Unfortunately both of the arrows went straight into Kandi, taking him down. Tom could only drag Kandi out of the line of fire, and bring him round with a hit point, allowing him to heal himself on his next turn.

A cat-and-mouse game of readied actions followed, with goblins popping up to fire and getting shot at but enabling them to score a hit on TC. Getting fed up with this bobbing up and down, Covey decides to just run in, taking damage from the freshly scattered caltrops and only just reaching the low wall, but unable to hit the goblins. Luckily their scimitar swings at TC both miss and he is able to take one of the goblins out with a swish of his longsword. The other goblin makes a run for it and manages to get away, as Tommy is slowed by his painful feet, and the rest of the group are still in the other room, using ranged weapons. With their presence well and truly advertised, the group decide to heal up and proceed with caution, rather than recklessly following the running goblin.

The following room - the target practice range - seemed empty, with the stockade room that they previously reached also empty. The group decide to head north, into an empty corridor, with sweet smells emanating from a door in the north, and some worrying thumping and crashing sounds from a door in the west. The group decide to try the north door first, having been convinced by an excited Meepo that Calcryx is probably behind the bolted door to the west.

In the north is a small room containing brewing equipment, and a sleeping-but-about-to-awake goblin. Tŏmas manages to quickly knock him unconscious before he can raise the alarm, and Mahtis is pleased to find a recipe for Goblin Brew Ale on the table nearby. The group consider getting Calcryx drunk.

Thinking that a nice, freshly-killed goblin would be nice food for Calcryx, TC and Kandi head back to the scene of the last battle to drag a dead goblin back as an 'offering' to the dragon.

On the way back, all are surprised as a group of four goblins burst through the western door. Luckily the goblins are also surprised to find the group right in front of them. Mahtis manages to take one out quickly, whilst the others all miss their attacks. One of the goblins made a run for it, back the way they came, but TC was in hot pursuit and manages to catch up with it just as it was about to open another door. With a swift and decisive swing of his longsword, Tom takes the goblin's head clean off, before the door could be opened. Meanwhile, Mahtis manages to take out the last two goblins with some pinpoint thrusts of her swords. The fight was over quickly, and, with any luck, no one heard the battle. Just in case, however, the group decide to barricade the door that the goblin was about to open with chests and barrels from the pantry they find themselves in, hoping that it will at least slow down any pursuit.

And so to tackle Calcryx. If they can manage to get her out of here quickly, and back to Yussi, their objective here would be achieved (at least, that's how the conversation went…). Taking a couple of dead rabbits as possibly nicer offerings to Calcryx than dead goblins, they approach the door and unbolt it, with Mahtis entering first, and slowly, making draconic coo-ing noises as she goes.

The weird baby-noises seem to be doing the trick. Calcryx is indeed in the room, seemingly free, and pretty pissed off. But she stops her crashing and banging around, to look curiously at a mewling Mahtis.

And then Meepo runs in, crying out that Calcryx is found and running towards the white dragon wyrmling. Unfortunately this seems to trigger a response in Calcryx and she immediately rears up on her hind legs, opens her gaping mouth and shoots a cone of freezing cold breath towards Meepo and Mahtis. Mahtis manages to dodge out of the way, catching only half of the blast, and, with her resistance to cold, reduces the very significant damage down to a manageable amount. Unfortunately for Meepo, however, he catches the full force of the blast directly, immediately reducing him to a freezing corpse. Meepo, beloved by the whole group, is no more. Killed by his 'friend' Calcryx.

At the sight of such a devastating attack, Mahtis immediately runs back out of the room, shutting the door and bolting it behind her.

And so we leave our "Heroes" in the goblin lair, having killed many goblins and met the white dragon wyrmling, Calcryx. Lovely Meepo is dead. What to do next??