#62: A Farewell to Half-Orcs

As told by Magnus of the Island of Seren.

I woke up like I had been asleep for a week.

No dreams, no visions, just a memory of drawing a card that said “The Void” on it and then Clarion’s shiny (very shiny) face hovering over mine. I felt fine, a bit confused, and then Rendar let out with “We are under observation,” pointing at the sky.

Wyverns.  And Rendar confirmed that his old friend Drazul (d'Tharashk) was leading them. I could make out a large blue wyvern among the four. All had riders. It wasn’t long before they disappeared into the little hamlet below and a few miles to the south, not a good sign. We talked for a minute about what to do, deciding that if they wanted to attack, they could have attacked us there on the exposed cliff. Clarion stepped up and started down the stairs. We followed a bit and then the stair dropped out from beneath the group. Most managed to grab the cliff, but I was still sort of out of it I guess, I dropped like a stone.

In an instant, Cypher cast a Feather Fall (from a feather he'd won at the Carnival) spell  and I floated down to the ground below, followed by the rest of the party. Cypher himself climbed down. I guess the spell wasn’t for him, but he is a good climber for a warforged.

At the bottom was a small ravine and in one wall there was a cave with prints and smells that told me “bear.” Clarion told me that the stairs had been a trap, and that he had heard someone chuckling as we fell. We decided to stay on our mission and get out of there when suddenly a noise from the cave turned us all back around.

Just as the noise reached its peak, a little winged humanoid zipped out of the cave and disappeared into thin air.  A quasit Sorethyress called it, based on the description. Little gray demon like those pestering us in her lair. It was immediately followed by an enraged owlbear who turned and saw us.

Aleae cast a new ice spell that frosted the owlbear and his entire dooryard (a powerful spell indeed). We all saw the quasit freeze and drop dead out of the sky. We tore into the owlbear with great intensity and in a few seconds, it was dead. I did get beaked but hardly noticed.

Owlbears want you to get
the hell off their lawns.

Rendar went into the cave seeking some treasure and Clarion scanned the area for the other quasit.  He told me that it was nearby.

I had been working on a new use for my dragon fury, something that takes a lot of focus and anger to master.  Using heavy breathing I can channel my inner dragon and crack open the door to the rage and enhance my senses. As with the dragons, all of my senses reached out into the world around me. It was like being very hungover, every chirp of a cricket was thunder and my skin prickled with the faintest breeze. But I could sense the invisible quasit, hovering  nearby. I moved around the dead owlbear and then sprung at the floating beastie. Though invisible, I knew exactly where he was and smacked him out of the sky. Clarion confirmed that we were now clear of demon spies. Good.

We regrouped. Rendar (with some new armor and gathered up weapons from the cave) was looking formidable again, though still in need of some pants. We turned south towards the village. Soon enough, a wyvern flew into view and dropped a still-living halfling from a great height. We ran over to see what happened.

The halfling, an elder of his kind, was dead, and there was a note tied to him, as I knew there would be.

Lord Rendar, meet me in the tavern. Let us talk business and the future of our esteemed house. I have information  about the Triumvirate which may interest you. If you're not here by nightfall, the establishment will be torched along with everyone else in it. A shame that would be, as this sleepy little hamlet did nothing to deserve the consequence of your cowardice. There sure are a lot of children here.

There were only a handful of buildings in the distance. A tavern would have to be one of them. We decided to go. On the way, Aleae asked Cypher to identify a wand that had come to her from her Deck of Many Things card. He said it was a Wand of Wonder and was powerful but extremely unpredictable. Perfect for her.

The town was just a couple of low-slung thatch-roofed stone buildings, with wyverns perched on all of them. One, two, three. Where was the fourth wyvern? Concerning.

Without much fooling around we agreed to kill Drazul after we let him say his piece. Rendar opened the door and we all walked in. It was a typical-looking pub inhabited by Drazul, a witch, a fat half-orc, and two orcs who were holding weapons over a couple of bound halflings. An adult male halfling was serving ale. I ordered one while Drazul blabbered on about how he was going to kill everyone and take over the world. But he needed the Emperor’s key. He wanted Rendar to join him. He threatened everyone with death.

Enough. He must die.

We all attack as one.

Cypher, Rungo, and Clarion managed to save the bound halflings despite some bloodshed. The fat half-orc turned out to be a wereboar and changed into a giant beast.

The witch summons an air elemental and Drazul fought like a fiend. Drazul seemed to have some magic vitality as we chopped away at him.
His wyvern swooped through the place twice and I got poisoned pretty badly. Cypher managed to gain some control of the air elemental and sent it back at Drazul’s friends. Aleae had her hasty hands full containing the witch for a few minutes.

Under our onslaught, Drazul finally dropped when Rendar pushed some found swords through him. With him dead, the hired witch jumped out the window and ran away—you just can’t find good help these days. With her gone, the air elemental wandered out the front door. The wyvern, with no one to command it, also left the area, we could hear some wyvern roars outside.

Drazul had some giant leech stuck to his chest and wrapped around him. This was disgusting, but I think it was the source of his great vitality. I called for fire.

Rendar picked up a jeweled rod that Drazul had on his belt. It was a "channeling rod" according to Rendar, and when he grasped it, he was given a message somehow, or some saw kind of vision through it. Maybe because of his fancier new dragonmark. Through his recounting, we learned some things. I summarize them here:

• Drazul was working for Avashad. Not surprising. 
• Avashad sent him directly to find us, and he knew we were in the Dragonwood. The quasit spies probably helped. 
• Avashad said something about "his Awakening" and said that if House Tharashk wished to benefit from it, then he needed the Emperor's Key.
• Drazul was to recruit Rendar if he wished, but the rest of us were to be killed—except for "the high elf female they call Aleae." He said she serves "an Eldeen queen in whose court I have no influence." He wished to capture alive, learn from her, and then replace her.
• Avashad said he has two agents among the feyspires already (but not the one Aleae is from).
• Avashad also has one agent in King Boranel's court. He knew a meeting was soon taking place among Aleae's people to discuss their "confinement on this plane." Avashad wants eyes at this meeting.

What bothered Rendar most was Drazul's talk about the Triumvirate, which seems to be some sort of ruling council for his house. Evidently it has been targeted for assassination and usurpation. The half-orcs of Drazul's side of the house wishes to eliminate opposition. I believe Rendar must go, and quickly, and try to stop this. Rendar has great honor and he must go to do what he can to bring honor to his house. I believe his new enhanced dragonmark will make his homecoming a good one.


Meanwhile, we must get back to Three, and maybe to the Brelish king, and then maybe Glyphstone Keep, where Rendar said the vampire Governor Trazzen was.

One of us must bear the Key.

I am sad to learn that Rendar must go. I wonder if the card he pulled was the reason for this, or if this was going to happen anyway. The Draconic Prophecy is strange. I am certain Lucerix would understand it better.

Rendar has been a great companion on these adventures. I deeply hope that our paths will cross again.

*          *          *

DM's Interlude

Rendar's farewell was cryptic, ominous, and brief. Not seeming to be entirely present anymore—he looked to the floor. "There are corpses down there," he said sadly, indicating the trap door leading to the basement. He shook his head, said his goodbyes, and simply walked out of the tavern.

Looking after him, the others could see him striding across the plain toward the northwest. Soon after, a winged shape appeared and descended to meet him. It was clearly not a wyvern. Though it was far away, they could see it was feathered, tawny, and vaguely dragonlike, but it bore the majestic features of a lion.

While the others recognized the creature from the crest of House Tharashk, Aleae knew its kind from various stories told in Thelanis: it was dragonne, a predatory beast of draconic origin but not quite as intelligence or magic-using as a dragon. Nevertheless, they are mighty creatures classified as fantastically as griffons, chimeras, or sphinxes.

The half-orc seemed to speak or parley with the creature in some way, then climbed on its unsaddled back. The dragonna launched itself into the air and flew overhead, heading south and west.

Another strange development! Was this the Deck of Many Things at work? Rendar seemed to have become a living embodiment of his house. In the last couple of months, he had taken many wounds for his companions, nearly died a dozen times, served as the focus for several of Xoma's spells, crossed swords with countless foes, inexplicably earned the affection of medusas and dryads alike, and saved many innocents.

Then Rendar d'Tharashk, Wyvernslayer clad only in some salvaged armor and a Cloak of Elvenkind, departed.

The Cake of Finding

#61 - Recovery, Gifts, and Many Things

Excerpt from the Cypher's Codex: The Scrawlings of a Warforged Scholar

Yet again I have proven the power of a well-timed Magic Missile infusion. Magnus and Rendar can perhaps do more damage but my unerring burst of magical force never fails me.  Raster-Reshizak was attempting a tactical retreat after suffering nearly irreparable damage from our coordinated attack. Not wanting to take a chance on missing with my armbow, I unleashed a powerful infusion of four bursts of Magic Missiles and the young copper dragon was disabled beyond repair. I will have to spend more time studying this relatively minor infusion, perhaps I can find a way to improve the potency of its damage or increase its range.

With the conclusion of the battle, we were able to assess our damages. Clarion was severely damaged, even after I had repaired him during battle. I quickly set off an infusion of repair in case more enemies were to come upon us.  Rendar was severely damaged, even to the core of his life force. Despite the healing magic Clarion provided, Rendar was unable to repair to his full capacity. He required the regeneration that only comes from slumber—I assumed.

Aleae immediately set about retrieving our stolen possessions. Along with our belongings she found several scrolls and potions. Over the course of two days I identified and inventoried them:

1 Potion of Invisibility

1 Potion of Water Breathing

1 Scroll of Melf’s Acid Arrow

1 Scroll of Fireball

1 Scroll of Animate Dead

1 Scroll of Vampiric Touch

1 Scroll of Glyph of Warding

Magnus examined the body of the defeated copper dragon and alerted me to his eye—a sphere of obsidian. I determined that it was some magical artifact but when I examined further, I was damaged just from touching the eye, first cold arcane energy then necromantic. I told Magnus I would need tools found in Wroat to identify the source of this artifice. Magnus immediately proceeded to hack off the dragon’s head using Rendar’s scimitar. I infused it with magical energy to assist him, although the process was quite tedious.

While Magnus attempted to decapitate the dead dragon, an unnatural fog quickly rolled over the area and obscured sight. Rungo, who had been standing guard down below in the caves, alerted me that the slumbering green dragon Sorethyress had awakened and was heading our way.  The mighty green was in a foul mood when she came upon us, and it was clear that she was still quite weak; she could barely climb up from the lower caves and we didn’t witness her fly even for a short distance.

Sorethyress interrogated Magnus over his beheading of Raster-Reshizak but I quickly placated her using a supplicant tone, once again reaching back to my studies of scholarly interactions with the ancient dragon race. Sorethyress immediately turned to me for an explanation, and in ancient Draconic I told her that we were sent to help her by the mighty King Boranel. Rendar had previously used his Mark of Finding to locate the Queen Wroann red jewel and I explained to Sorethyress that our providence was lodged within the belly of the fallen copper dragon. She pushed Magnus aside and proceeded to indelicately rip into the fallen beast. She plucked the jewel and tossed it to me. Satisfied for the moment, she told us to stay where we were and she would return after some time. We decided to rest and repair for the remainder of the day; I spent the time gathering scales from the copper dragon's corpse and extracting as many teeth from its head.

When Sorethyress returned that evening, she seemed to have more energy and was in a considerably better mood. She was willing to answer many of our questions, a rare treat to have an ancient dragon as an advisor. We made use of the opportunity, although Sorethyress did not have all the answers we sought. One thing of note that she relayed was her knowledge of Avishad, the creature with whom we had crossed paths on the airship and who supposedly wreaked havoc in the Seren Isles since Magnus’s departure. Sorethyress recognized the name Avishad as the name associated with a Rakshasa.

I had read about these ancient tiger-headed fiends of Khyber. Rakshasa’s were disciples of the great demons slumbering in the Dragon Below. Shapechangers and illusionists, they are master planners who spend many thousands of years working toward the utter disruption of the plane of Eberron. Some rumors suggest that Rakshasa’s even live amongst the populace of Eberron’s cities and towns. According to Sorethyress, Avishad was said to be a member of the Bleak Council, a ruling group in the Demon Wastes, and is suspected to be the chief servant, or prakhutu, of the great rajah known as Katasha the Gatekeeper. We have encountered this name before, first below Paluur Draal then again when the medusa priestess Zarasha told us what she knew.

Magnus asked Sorethyress about Vensharatyrx, the white dragon associated with the Winter Coalition, and about Lucerix. She said she knew of both but would say little else on the subject.


Sorethyress also instructed us to tell King Boranel to send an emissary to take further instruction from her when Nymm, the yellow moon known as The Crown is full, which would be in a little over two weeks. Further communication with Sorethyress would go through His Majesty King Boranel, for she did not fully trust us.

Yet in recognition of our assistance she gave us what she deemed a rare and powerful device from her treasure hoard known as the Deck of Many Things. She gave it to Rendar and instructed us not to draw from it until we reached the border of the forest, and she sent a will-’o-wisp to guide us through a shortcut in the forest. She told us to be on the lookout for quasits, the small imp-like demons summoned by the copper dragon, for she could smell them and sense their presence but was too weak to “ferret them out.” She said it was likely they would follow us, if they were in league with our enemies.

Will-'o-wisps are said to be fey
spirits, but they are malicious
and feed off the fear of
others. In folklore and reality,
they are well known for
leading the lost to their
deaths.One which
serves a dragon, however,
could certainly serve a
contrary purpose. 

The dryad, now less inclined to harm us and clearly allied to the green dragon, asked Rendar if he would stay with her. I didn't understand why, nor the reason for her assuming a half-elf shape with the subtle features of a half-orc female. Although Rendar declined, she gifted him with what I learned was a Cloak of Elvenkind. In appearance, it is simple, a garment of soft gray material but evidently possessing powers of camouflage.

Sorethyress then told us to go. I was not able to examine the will-’o-wisp closely when it appeared, for the green dragon had advised us not to. It was a buoyant sphere of white light and seemingly retained an electric charge—if its energy was self-renewing, surely such a creature could be used to power an untold number of artifice-made devices! It remained a distance from us, leading us through unseen paths through the evening hours.

After traveling for two days through the forest, the will-’o-wisp vanished from sight as we arrived at a small abandoned village on the edge of a cliff. This was the edge of the domain of Sorethyress and the eastern border of the Dragonwood itself and we could see the plains of Breland below, as well as the Orien caravan road and a lightning rail in the distance.

We settled down in one of the ruined stone buildings to draw from the Deck of Many Things. Rendar went first, as he was instructed by Sorethyress. He had become preoccupied and silent during our travels. The half-orc was always soft-spoken but had become even more so since the Deck of Many Things was entrusted to him, “one marked by prophecy.”

I then observed a series of strange, most invisible phenomena as each of my companions drew a card from the deck, which Rendar laid down on the stump of a tree. As each card was drawn, we were able to see what it depicted, and was named, then the card vanished.

Rendar drew first. His card was called Talons, depicting a pair of red claws. I discerned little at first, then became aware of two facts: (1) All of his clothing and equipment had vanished, except for the Cloak of Elvenkind the dryad had given him. (2) His dragonmark had expanded and now covered nearly the whole of his body.

Clarion drew the Gem. I could see little change in him, save for the increased gleam of his composite plating.

Aleae drew the Sun. Nothing happened to her body but when the card disappeared from her hand, it was replaced by a jewel-encrusted wand.

Magnus drew the Jester. When it vanished, he immediately reached down and drew two more cards—presumably instructed by the first card. The next cards were Flames and The Void. Magnus began to sweat profusely, then moments later collapsed into unconsciousness. This may be concerning.


When it was my turn to draw, I didn’t want to take the risk of losing my possessions as Rendar had, so I sent Rungo away to stand guard outside and I stripped myself of all my belongings.

I drew from the deck and pulled a Ruin card.  There were no obvious effects that I felt so I quickly inventoried my things. All of my coins were gone but thankfully those were the only things missing. While other’s drew from the deck I took a closer inventory and noticed that the magical matrix of my armbow had been disturbed. A cursory examination revealed that its magical power had increased; it was now a weapon of greater destruction, capable of corroding armor and the life force of a living creatures with greater ease.


Sorethyress had told us we could each select only one card unless granted by the deck to select another (as the Jester had), and that after the last of us took from the deck it would disappear. This it did.

However, I found my curiosity too strong to deny and while Magnus picked his card, the last of us to do so, I surreptitiously infused another card with Indisputable Possession. When the deck disappeared, I activated the infusion and the card appeared in my hand—briefly. But when I turned the card to see the effects it vanished again and I had an intense impression of some being’s great displeasure in me. No further information was gathered.

Rungo alerted me to a group on incoming hostile creatures by air and we saw a group of winged shapes through the trees to the south, flying toward us. We quickly realized these were wyverns. Rendar, who was behaving oddly, identified with a strange certainty the presence of Drazul d’Tharashk, the excoriate half-orc we had last seen inside Paluur Draal. (Magnus, Rendar, and I last saw him in the throne room of the Governor, where he had been allied with Avashad, soldiers of the Emerald Claw, various undead, and abberations of the Dragon Below.)

We began our preparations for battle.

#60 - Tarnished Copper

Journal of Clarion Tritone, Champion of Dol Arrah, Vassal of the Sovereign Host - Zarantyr 11th, 999 YK 

I was very worried to leave Sorethyress the Viridescent, the great green wyrm—whom we had freed from her stare into the dark mirror and the eyes of a demon in what appeared to have been Khyber—alone while we would face whatever Raster-Reshizak, the copper dragon, who had obviously claimed sovereignty over her lair and had undoubtedly prepared for our arrival outside. Sorethyress was unquestionably amongst the most powerful creatures in the presence of which I had ever been, as much as she now felt small in comparison to the great red dragon, Lucerix, who we glimpsed through the portal at the other end of the Tunnel we had crossed while some aspects of us walked the depth of the most forsaken Khyber.

I had just promised her that I would watch over her until she had recovered. Magnus seemed to think my promise foolish, for her full recovery in his opinion could take many many months if not years. I was worried that our absence from her side could provide an opportunity for the copper to perform some gruesome act upon the still-weakened dragon.

At least we had been able to undo the three ghouls that had been chained to the bottom of her pool and were surely intended to weaken her. My hasty attack on them had left me with far more damage than had been necessary and reminded me to practice more patience.

As the diminutive demonic servant of Raster-Reshizak entered the lair and would thrust another finger of the obviously hapless green dragon into the waters next to me it became clear that we could no longer delay our encounter with the copper dragon who had brought Sorethyress’s younger kin into his power.

We made our way towards the exit, vividly discussing whether we should abide by the dragon’s ruling that we were to come without our weapons. As much as it pained me to break my word and march into this battle with full gear I was convinced by my companions that the dragon had no other goal than to overwhelm us with all of his powers, no matter what other pretenses he might offer.

As we were about to leave we were met by Thrisst, the female green dragon we had first encountered on the way into Sorethyress's lair. She had been sent by Raster-Reshizak to ensure that we would come without weapon,s making it very clear to her that he would kill her brother should we deign to disobey. Thrisst asked about the condition of Sorethyress, whom we knew to be her aunt. The moment we told her that we had freed Sorethyress and were doing our best to hasten her recovery, she brushed through us to see for herself. She returned shortly and informed us that Sorethyress had instructed her not to interfere with us and that she would remain in the lair for as long as she could reasonably pretend to have been looking for us without enraging the copper and endangering her brother. She did not fail to assure us that she held us entirely responsible for her brother’s safety. We kept our weapons.

"If my brother dies, you die," Thrisst warned us.

A still weary Matheurixivilum could be convinced to use some of his magic on Rendar, again allowing him to walk the walls with ease. I asked Dol Arrah for her blessing for our mission and we proceeded. With Matheurixivilum’s help, Rendar’s spider-like abilities to climb and plenty of rope, we were able to readily execute our plan of arriving at the entrance plateau at the top of the chasm swiftly and unnoticed until the last second. The waterfall under which we climbed provided good cover until the last small climb unto the plateau, during which we accidentally clanged our weapons, inadvertently making so much noise that it seemed as if we had purposely attempted to announced ourselves.

Immediately, I sensed the presence of three undead, who would turn out to be reanimated Aundarian warriors. Once upon the plateau we also became aware of the presence of the dryad to our left and, given his garb and almost undead features, clearly a necromancer at the other end of the bridge which crossed the ravine. The necromancer was also not human. A lizardfolk and likely a shaman of some kind, if I recall the name humans have given them.

The young copper dragon was perched 16 feet above our level, surveilling and mockingly commenting on our loud arrival from his seat above the cave mouth with its portcullis that marked one entrance to the lair of Sorethyress the Viridescent. The green dragon’s badly hurt brother was entirely in his power—Raster-Reshizak half perched upon the dragon in demonstration—and he swiftly displayed his superiority by dissolving a third of the poor dragon’s digits with the acid of his breath after we had received the other two as “invitations” to meet the copper beast at this place.

Even though Raster-Reshizak was a young dragon, he was still a dragon, any of which is a formidable opponent. In addition to that we had learned from Matheurixivilum that this cunning creature was well studied in the use of magical powers, an impression that his appearance almost seemed designed to reinforce. Most markedly one of the dragon’s eyes appeared extremely unusual for it looked more like a magical orb of obsidian than an eye, and half of the dragon's horn-plated face was darkened by its presence.

He repeatedly ordered that we would drop our weapons. We were able to very slowly but still successfully move away from the subject. He never agreed that we would keep our weapons but we never dropped them. He then explained that he had only found us curious and had wanted to learn more about us. Obviously only a very partial truth, yet I have many stories to tell that in my opinion would not compromise our position but it seemed that my companions, particularly Magnus, had no interest in hearing any.

Increasingly ill-amused by our evasion of his questions and unwillingness to accept his sovereignty over these parts of the land, he demanded that we open the chest filled with the Sorethyress’s treasure, which had been left by Brelish government envoys over the last few years and which we all knew was heavily magically guarded from claws that were not Sorethyress’s.

I was still studying our tactical position, which I was sure my companions were eagerly doing as well, hoping to see an opportunity for us to carve out an advantage through some stroke of luck or lapse of attention on the part of our assailant. I volunteered to open the chest, but explained that I could do so only with the help of my music. Deeply suspicious and wary of my proposal he still allowed me to do so.

As I summoned a servant that could open the chest for me without anyone being harmed I played a song telling of the greatness of metallic dragons and how they are destined to rule the world, hoping that the copper could for a moment lose himself in some reverie that could give us a chance to overcome him. Once the vibrations had gathered and interwoven into the form of my helper I commanded for it to open the chest. The top of the chest swung open, a sigil at the front began glowing and the magical wards energy unleashed itself upon and banished my servant, who I knew was of no form that could be harmed.

The chest was now open and the dragon peered greedily and eagerly at its content. My hope was that he would not be able to contain himself and drop to our level to examine the content more closely. I gravely underestimated him, he did no such thing, but ordered us now to remove objects and show them to him.

Cypher advanced to the chest, touching one of the objects within, but not moving it, which he had learned in a most humbling manner right after our initial arrival at this place, when the dryad had magically suggested for him to do so. He seemed deeply engaged with the object and ignored the copper dragon's repeated demands for him to go ahead and remove the object from the chest. I was not sure if he had a plan but was studying the constellation within which all actors were arranged.

Here the increasingly impatient Magnus took another step towards our assailants. It was one step too many for Raster-Reshizak who, with a dark smile upon his scaly, mischievous features began casting a spell focused on Magnus. To his great surprise the dark energies that had begun emerging from his hands unceremoniously dissipated. Aleae, as she later explained, had acquired the power to fully counter another’s caster’s spell—a power that would prove incredibly helpful again towards the end of our battle as the necromancer on the bridge would attempt to greatly empower Raster-Reshizak with a hastening spell that was all too familiar to Aleae and which she could not allow to complete.

Shorty after this, Rendar, Aleae, and I found ourselves engulfed by a mighty inferno as we were the target of a ball of fire the dragon thrust upon the ground upon which we stood. Rendar seemed to grow what looked like strange, thorny crown on his head, taking a look down the bridge and seeing the necromancer focused on him I could only assume that he had placed him under some kind of charm. Alerting the others to stay clear of Rendar, I thrust myself at the first undead Aundairian warrior who was after Cypher (he had begun climbing the rock leading up to the dragon), seeking to swiftly provide them, one by one, the peace they had been so gruesomely denied. Channeling the divine powers of my beloved Dol Arrah into my blows the first undead was quickly diminished.

The dryad cast a spell to entangle Rendar, me, and Aleae. It was hard to tell whether she did so to help us or whether she would continue to abide by the will of the copper dragon who had her tree in his magical grip—but none of us were harmed by it. Rendar found himself compelled to attack a surprised Magnus who had engaged the other undead warrior and pierced him with an arrow in the shoulder.

Magnus was rushed by the dryad and by the time I was able to steal away another glance from the once formidable Aundairian champion, they had both disappeared. I would only much later learn that she had taken him through the trees right to where Raster-Reshizak had made his initial stand and thus played a major part in the success of our efforts. Just as I thrust the radiantly glowing dragonhawk-banner into the the second undead warrior for the last time before he collapsed I saw that Rendar was now taking aim at Aleae who appeared to have contented herself with her position amongst the vines from where she wove powerful spells. I rushed over, deflecting the arrow with my shield before it pierced her.

We could only hear the fierce battle that was raging atop the porticus between Cypher, Magnus and the copper beast. A moment later the dragon flung himself into the air and with a loud rumble landed on the other side of the bridge right behind the necromancer.

It was here, that we would again learn to thank Aleae’s newfound power to end a spell prematurely, for if the necromancer had succeeded at hastening the dragon magically it could have well been the end of us all.

Render had finally been able to shake the charming force that had driven him to attack his companions and was engaging the last of the undead right by our end of the bridge where I now joined him. Raster-Reshizak must have found us a ready target right at the center of his view down the bridge. He took a few mighty steps in our direction causing the bridge to shake under every one of them and clouds of acid came gushing from amidst his bruised jaws.

I felt the intense burn of the dragon’s acidic breath as it poured over Rendar and I both. Once again I found myself hearing the voices of the Host as they carried me through my state of unconsciousness. It must have been no more than an instant after I was incapacitated that Cypher used his artifice to return me to the battle. Dol Arrah had recently provided me with powers that would allow me to return life to the hurt and weary, so before I rose I grasped the arm of the mortally wounded Rendar who had fallen right next to me and I channeled divine powers that healed the worst of his wounds and who in turn undid the pitiful state of the last of the once mighty Aundarian warriors.

A great series of fiery rays filled the space between Aleae, the copper dragon and his necromancer. The necromancer dropped and succumbed to these burns, Raster-Reshizak was hurt and immediately lunged himself off the bridge and right in front of the still entangled Aleae. Looming over her, she looked quite small and the dragon, young though it was, never seemed so large. Aleae spent all her energies to break free from the vines, then ran with her spell-enhanced speed faster than the eye could see, out of reach of the mighty beast that would have surely ripped her in two had he managed to get his claws into her.

An old copper dragon would be
considerably larger than Raster-Rashizak

Infuriated by her escape, he flung himself into the air again, now dropping next to Cypher who was able to parry most of his assaults. I became aware of a blood-drenched and barely standing Magnus who was again focused on a last-ditch effort preparing to unleash his blows upon his enemy in a fiery rage. I managed to land my hand on his shoulder and heal a portion of his barely recognizable back, which had been bathed in the dragon’s acid breath.

Amongst a series of blows and spells from all of my companions the rotten creature found himself swiftly overwhelmed. “No, no, NO, NO, this cannot be!” he roared in outrage and despair and made an attempt to escape his demise by launching into the air, spreading his wings, and sailing through the air away from us.

Thinking quickly, Cypher let out one last barrage of magical missiles hitting the blood-dripping, fleeing beast squarely in its chest, ripping him from the sky. A cacophony of breaking wood filled our ears and marked the spot where the creature would leave this world.