#59 - Return to the Lair

It took some quick convincing, but eventually Magnus relented and the PCs began their retreat back toward the way they came. Upon returning to the bone-and-brain demon who was battling Sorethyress through the dark mirror, they decided to attack it again. This time, with some success. Weapons and spells began to penetrate and impact the creature, and it finally turned against them as well, slashing with claws and even lashing out with some sort of mental, transparent whip. Doing so turned it away from the green dragon...

A pair of banshees rose up from the dark abyss at the center of this place, and Rendar had even spotted something large and menacing working its way steadily up the spiral stairs. The banshees were dispatched, but not before their horrid screams disintegrated the forms of both Magnus and Rendar!

The brain demon finally retreated, greatly wounded. The PCs tried to finish it of, but the towering black shape of some sort of giant-sized humanoid was enough to prompt them to escape. Back through the mirror they went....

Magnus and Rendar were unconscious, blood leaking from orifices from their experience. The others "awoke" back in their bodies, and Cypher quickly discovered that his iron defender, the homonculous Rungo, had been disabled by something—and cast down into the murky water below.

Sorethyress herself, the great green dragon, now lay in a deep sleep. No longer was she transfixed by the dark mirror—the PCs had driven away the demon who had engaged her. However, the pseudodragon Matheu reappeared, still weakened by his ordeal, and told them what had transpired after they had entered the realm beyond the mirror.

"There was a corpse...that was not a corpse, there, beneath the water. When you entered the mirror, it rose up and came to examine your bodies. It was a copper dragon, young but quite studied in the arcane and possessing obvious necromantic powers. With him were three dead armored humans. He studied you for long moments, so I slipped out and found the two young greens, seeking their help. I tried to convince the female, Thrisst, to investigate. Her brother, a male, seemed stricken by some spell."

"Then, I returned, and found the copper dragon performing a ritual. He had summoned a quasit—an implike minor fiend from Khyber. Then the green came, and when the copper detected her, they began to fight and their battle took them outside."

Evidently the copper dragon had even picked through their equipment. In fact, several of the PCs had discovered that some of their prized possessions were missing—including the map that allowed them to find their way to Sorethyress's lair, and would also help them find their way out again!

Wishing to rest but also to exit the lair, and wary of the dryad's warning, should they leave again—the PCs found another tunnel high off the ground and used rope to reach it. There, Cypher set to work repairing Rungo. Rendar used the power of his Mark of Finding to locate their missing gear—and he felt the presence of one of the items above them, far enough way through the earth to be on the surface. As Clarion and Aleae stood guard, Rendar and Magnus followed the tunnel as it wound upward, slowly working its way toward their possessions.

The passage ended at a solid wall of hard oak at the top of a short flight of stairs. There, the dryad emerged from the wood and speak with them and warned them again that she could not allow them to leave. She explained that the copper dragon—the "intruder dragon"—had made her tree sick with a spell and he was thereby holding her hostage and forcing her to fight for him. If she disobeyed, he would allow his spell to kill the tree—and her with it. Rendar and Magnus tried to convince her to help them and they said they would help kill the copper dragon, but she feared the dragon's death would not save her. Only he can break the spell on he tree, she insisted. If he died, she would die as well.

Magnus said that Sorethyress was no longer in her trance, but she was sleeping. When she awoke, she would surely have the power to heal the dryad's tree. They just needed to defeat the copper dragon so Sorethyress could be allowed to sleep in safety. The dryad knew this, for she and Sorethyress were allies, but she feared challenging the copper dragon would fail and with it, her tree. She could not be convinced. Magnus and Rendar returned to the group and they made camp in the uncomfortable tunnel.

Soon after, a quasit appeared—a little gray, vaguely monkey-like little bat-winged creature with curling horns and a nasty face. It was a messenger from the copper dragon. The little demon handed over something to Clarion, who stood closest at his sentry post: it was the long green-scaled digit one one of the young green dragons, wrapped in a strip of parchment which turned out to be a piece of the map Three had given the group so they'd be able to find their way through the Dragonwood to Sorethyress's lair.

“I represent Raster-Reshizak the Knavish. He wishes to speak with you. He does not wish to harm you unless you force his claw, for you have piqued his interest with your presence here.”

The copper dragon clearly had the green dragons at his mercy now.

The quasit stated that Raster would present the PCs with three riddles. If they could answer one of them, he would allow them to rest in the cave for the night. If they could answer two riddles, he would require only two among them to come and meet with him in the morning. If they could answer all three riddles correctly, he would let them all go—to leave Sorethyress's cave unmolested. They agreed, and the quasit went away and returned with a potion, which it splashed upon the wall. A magic mouth formed on the cave wall, speaking in the copper dragon's voice.

The riddles were:

An untiring servant it is,

Carrying loads across muddy earth.

But one thing that cannot be forced,

is a return to the place of its birth.

This one they answered correctly, and quickly.

She got it in the woods and brought it home in

her hand because she couldn't find it.

The more she looked for it the more she felt it.

When she finally found it she threw it away.

This one they came close to getting right, but ultimately failed.

The light one breaks but never falls

His brother falls but never breaks

The PCs had answered "dawn and dusk" but the answer was "night and day," not good enough. One of three riddles had been answered, so the PCs were allowed to rest in the cave but they were required to exit, without their weapons, and speak with him in the morning. True to his word, the dragon made no attacks during the night.

Magnus, who's had dealings with dragons before (if not many), could tell that the copper dragon—presumably the very one behind Sorethyress's near possession—was afraid to come into the cave now that she was no longer entranced by the dark mirror. Sleeping she might be, but a dragon her age was quite powerful. By all reports, Raster was a young dragon still and despite his necromantic powers, would be no match for the great green wyrm.