Chapter 2

 

Raven, Danger, Kan-ra and Surus are running down a tunnel. When they emerge on the other side they are inside a fortress.... The villagers they have with them are thankful for the rescue and are greeted by the guards within. Each of you are holding a small child. As the room settles down,  the parents of each child appears and is reunited... All except Raven, she is left with a small child in her arms. Raven approaches one of the family and ask if they will care for this child. 

One of the guards comes up and says the Governor would like to speak with the heroes. He has gotten information from one of the raiders and has a mission for them. When they meet with the governor he tells them that the true nature of the raid was to find an artifact to help with some grand plan. He thinks the raiders found what they are after because they are leaving. He asks the heroes to follow the raiders from their camp to find out more.... Just then.. there is loud yelling outside the main gate of the keep...

From the darkness, a creature strides into the dim light of the dying fires around the keep. Although it is shaped roughly like a human, it is at least seven feet tall, its skin is covered in blue scales, its fingers bear wicked claws, and its face has the muzzle and reptilian eyes of a dragon. The creature stops about eighty yards from the main gate of the keep and scans the walls. A line of kobolds fans out behind it. With their spears, they prod four human prisoners into the dim light. You can make out a woman, a teenage boy in a blood-soaked tunic, and two children. Then the half-dragon creature hails the keep.

“Defenders of Greenest! This has been a successful night, and I am feeling generous. Do you see these four pitiful, useless prisoners? We have no need for them, so I will trade them back to you. Send out your best warrior to fight me, and you can have these four in exchange.... My friends, you’ve demonstrated your prowess all through this frightful night. I realize this is an awful burden to ask you to bear"

  

Our hero's hear rumblings from the people around them, these prisoners are the family of the child Raven saved. Terms for this battle are agreed upon. This will be one on one combat. The children will be released to show good faith and the woman will be held till after the fight. No one is to interfere, no stray arrows, no magic interference or the woman will be killed. Leaving the four children orphans!

Surus steps forward to be the champion for the town. In front of the keep the Governor tells his men to stand down. The other side of a circle that is formed is lined with kobold warriors. The fight between Surus and the half-blue Dragon is fierce. The half dragon opens with the first move, releasing lighting breath that Surus  just dodges. The half dragon just plays with his target, bring him down to the ground.  Danger and Kan-ra mock the half dragon in his own language, only slightly distracting him and also making fools of themselves when they speak gibberish... Just before the final death blow he laughs and says that was the most fun he has had in a while. He orders the woman released. Before leaving, warns that no one is to follow them or they will be killed. Then with a wave and a snap of his fingers... all the raiders draw back into the dark and are gone. There is one last howl form the giant blue dragon as it flies away.

The Governor rewards the hero. They heal Surus. He asks the heroes to follow the raiders and find out more about what his town would have had that they would have stolen. The heroes are reluctant, but after the teenage boy comes to them (that was freed by the fight) they fell like they must.

A young man walks, the teenage boy, Timmy says  to you, limping heavily on his bandaged left leg. “I hear that you intend to follow the raiders and see where they’ve gone. I’d like nothing better than to come with you, but in this condition, I’d slow you down. In the midst of all this tragedy, there’s no reason you would have heard about the fate of my father, Leosin Erlanthar, but it’s important you know. He is a monk from Berdusk. He disappeared last night, after we fought a particularly savage battle against raiders. A few others and I fought our way to the keep, barely. Leo didn’t make it at all. We went back this morning to look for him, but all we found was his broken staff and this choker, which he always wore.” “Leo has been investigating these raiders for months. I fear that he might have tried to infiltrate their group when they retreated, or worse, was captured and carried away as a prisoner. No one understands these bandits better than he does, and his knowledge will be invaluable against them. When you find their camp, please look for any sign that Leo is there. One of my brothers has already departed for Berdusk (another town where the Monks train) to bring back help, but it will be many days before help arrives. Anything you can do before then would be a godsend.”

Our heroes fallow the tracks of the large raiding party for two days. One the first day they find a camp of Kobolds and cult memebers. They swiftly cut them down, capturing the last Kobold left. After interrogating him they find out the following.

• The Cult of the Dragon has an active recruiting process, accepting initiates from a young age. An initiate trains for months or years before gaining any rank within the organization, and many trainees don’t survive the tests. An initiate who passes the tests. Dragons recruited are all: black, blue, green, red, or white.
• There are only five wyrmspeakers, one per color of chromatic dragon. The current wyrmspeakers are
• Severin (red)  
• Galvan (blue)
• Neronvain (green)  
• Rezmir (black)   
• Varram (white)
• Most of the cult’s operations are overseen by local leaders called Wearers of Purple for the ceremonial robes that they wear. All of the wyrmspeakers are Wearers of Purple, as are lower-ranking cultists appointed by the wyrmspeakers to preside over cult enclaves.

That night they came and are attached by a Kamadan. They defeat it.     

The next morning they make their way to the raiders camp, finding this large army is gone. The camp is filled with humans of cultist, and regular raiders. They capture one of the stragglers and question him. After finding out all they can, Surus sacrifices him to his Patton God of War... This pleases his god and they are granted one question...  and are pointed to “the nursery” cave as the place to go. 

This is a camp of the Cult of the Dragon — praise Tiamat’s glory!
Not everyone here is a full-fledged member of the cult. Many are new initiates working toward full acceptance, and many others are simple mercenaries, hired to flesh out the camp’s strength during raids or if it should come under attack.
The kobolds are here because their worshipful attitude toward dragons makes them easy for Rezmir and other high-ranking cultists to manipulate, but they are not well liked or trusted by the other races.
Hunters who bring in antelope and other large game from the grasslands feed the camp. The cultists and their allies eat most of it, but some is stored in the cave to feed the hatchlings.
Prisoners are used for manual labor. In the past, a few have “converted” and become loyal members of the cult, but most die eventually of overwork and undernourishment. Then they are fed to the drakes or taken into the cave to feed the hatchlings.

With this knowledge they walk into the camp, almost making it in before they are captured and brought to Mandath. 

      

They end up tied up with Leo. They escape and Leo sends them back in after telling them the following.

• The cult has been ranging far and wide on small raids to collect treasure. Greenest was the closest target to the camp, the biggest of all the towns they’ve attacked, and the most profitable — praise Tiamat’s glory!
• The cave at the back of the camp  is off-limits to all but those who’ve been cleared by Mondath and Rezmir, which includes a handful of guards and kobolds. It’s known around camp as “the nursery,” and it’s an open secret that Rezmir plans to hatch a clutch of dragon eggs there.
• The half-black dragon Rezmir came to the area a few months ago, and she set up the camp. Mondath handles everyday operations.
• The half-blue dragon Cyanwrath is Mondath’s right hand and is seldom far from her side. He has a rigid sense of honor, but you don’t want to make him angry.
• The mother of dragons — praise Tiamat’s glory — shall return, and when that day comes, all the nations of the world shall tremble before her majesty! But this is just a childs tail and must be cover for some other doings.

As they go into the "nursery" cave they find themselves in the middle of a forest at a fortress.  In the clearing there is less vegetation and as they look around they see that at the other side of the clearing is a huge tower fortress. This tower is surrounded by a deep trench of black void space with soft rounded sides of loose ground. The tower itself is surrounded by beautiful flower shrubs. 

 

The Wood Elf guards will not let the Heroes in and at the mention of the cave entrance (that is now gone) the gourd laugh at the heroes like they are crazy. 

The heroes are forced to sneak into the back. They find a grate that they crawl in and takes them to a dirty room, it looks like a storage room full of spinning wheels. There is a closed wooden door that leads to a hall way. On the other side a Stone slab blocks the hallway twenty feet beyond the wooden door. An iron lever is set into the door’s surface, with a graven stone Rue skull leering down from above. Ken-ra notices that there is a seam along the floor. Being careful, Kan- Ra is tied with a rope to the others and walks down the hallway. When he gets halfway .... The skull’s jaws creak open, and a skeletal hand holding a crystal hourglass-style timer emerges from within..... With a click, the timer rotates and sand starts to trickle into its lower globe. The wooden door slams shut and pushes everyone into the hallway. Dangers runs over and pulls on the lever before time runs out.... 

The floor opens up and they all fall into a pit. Ken-ra is the only one to take any real damage from this. As they all stand up to recover the stone slab opens up and stairs appear leading up to the new opening. 

In this next room, the slab closes behind them and diapers. This is a large room with one wooden door and a line of cages. The heros befriend one of the captors and end up befriending him. His name is Dragonbait and he helps them explore a tomb, recover a necklace (looks like one raven already has), realize there is no passage of time here, find the hidden stairs and get to the great hall without further incident.

Once in the great hall they offer up the necklaces they found. They are rewarded to find they have been called here by the God Bahamut, Father of Dragons. He is pleased with how they fried the innocent. He gifts them each a magical dragon item and shows them two visions.... something that has happened (the fortress they stand in getting raided by goblins an a flash of magic) ... something that could happen (Tiamat (Evil Queen of dragons) flying into the heros plane of existence and destroying all). He warns that she must be stopped.

Sending them back to their destination of the "nursery" cave...