It's Raining Cockatrices

We rested for a few hours while we waited for the fires to burn out. As we started to think about trying to identify the magical items we'd obtained, and possibly interrogating the necromancer's spirit, we noticed something. Coming in from the Northwest, about 1000' away, we saw the shape of a dragon. It looked like it had a rider. We couldn't tell exactly what kind of dragon it was, but it was dark. The nearest land it could be from was A'aloss, but we weren't sure where it was coming from. It didn't look like it was coming directly to us.

The dragon flew over the town and the witch, staying at a height of roughly 2000'. It finally looped around and headed for the tower. We closed up around the door of the tower. The dragon banked back & forth in lazy swoops, affording the rider a clear view of the grounds. On its second swoop over us, I noticed the dragon had reins, bit, and bridle. The dragon appeared to be undead; most of its flesh was intact and it appeared to be flying naturally. The rider was heavily swathed in thick, dark robes. The robes were well-maintained and expensive, not tattered.

The dragon looped back around. The rider ran a knife along his arm and sprinkled some drops on the ground near us. I believed it wasn't a spell as such; more a magical effect of the blade. Another necromancer... I didn't recognize the monsters, but they were some kind of winged beast. There were about 10 of them. It didn't take long for them to orient themselves and start coming towards us, while the dragon circled overhead.

Shatain went for the tower; Brennen & I followed. We ran down the stairs, set out our lanterns and set the trap. We heard the creatures enter the tower, and start going down the stairs. They triggered the pit trap pretty quickly, and came tumbling down in a gaggle. They couldn't untangle to fly, and 6-7 tumbed into the pit trap. Some of them landed on top of the others that were already pinned. We also hear a few more coming down.

Shatain stabbed the first one to poke its head up, and hit it for 27. Her 2nd attack missed. 3 were into the room with us. C1 bit Shatain for 5, and removed 2 point of his Dexterity. We recognized these as cockatrices. C2 bit at me, but missed. C3 bit Brennen, doing 3, but avoided the poison. I waited for the others to appear in the room - 6 were with us. I dropped a burst of holy energy, but unfortunately they weren't actually evil creatures. Some took 6, some took 3. C4-C6 attacked Brennen; he took a total of 15 and 2 points of Dexterity. Brennen attacked C4, hitting for 16 and again for 15.

C2 attacked me, biting for 3; I wasn't affected by the poison. I summoned a hammer of spiritual force; it attacked C2 twice, hitting once for 7. Shatain bluffed C1, but missed with her attack. C3-C6 all attacked Brennen; he took 10 total, and was able to resist the poison. Brennen swung at C4, and killed it with an attack for 23. He then attacked C5, hitting for 16. C1 attacked Brennen but missed. C5 attacked late, hitting Brennen for 5 and taking another 2 points of Dex.

Shatain bluffed C1 again, and hit for 23 again. C1 died. Several attacked Brennen again, hitting for 10 total again. He resisted all the poison. C2 attacked me again, but missed. Brennen attacked C5, hitting for 19 and missing with his 2nd attack. My hammer hit C2 twice, for 15 total. My own attacks missed.

Shatain bluffed C6, and hit for 16. My spiritual hammer missed with the first attack, but hit on the 2nd for 10. I struck with my warhammer, missed, and fumbled on the 2nd attack. C2 attacked as the opportunity presented but missed. C2 attacked again, but missed again. C6 attacked Shatain, biting for 3. Shatain resisted the poison. Brennen attacked C5, hitting for 21 and killing it. Brennen then attacked C6, but barely missed. C3 bit Brennen for 2, and 1 point of Dex.

My spiritual hammer struck C2 again, hitting for 5, but missing with the 2nd attack. I attacked with my hammer, but missed critically. The beast bit me for 3, and I resisted the poison. Brennen attacked C6, hitting for 16. He critically missed his 2nd attack. C6 bit back for 4, but Brennen resisted the poison. Shatain bluffed C6 again, and hit for 16, finishing it off. C2 attacked me, but missed again. C3 missed as well.

C3 attacked Brennen & hit for 3. Brennen resisted the poison. Shatain bluffed C3, but missed with her attack. My hammer hit C2 with its 2nd attack for 3; my hammer hit for 11 on the 2nd attack and killed it. Brennen attacked C3, hitting for a total of 32. My spiritual hammer hit C3 twice for 12, and I hit it again for 9, finally finishing it off.

Brennen was pretty badly injured, and slow. Shatain was doing OK. I healed some of Brennen's Dexterity damage, and healed us all up to full. Peeking outside, we could see the fire elementals continuing to burn everything in sight. The dragon was still looping with its riders above us. We went back inside. I regained my spells, swapping out a few so I could heal Brennen & Shatain's Dexterity all the way back up.

Around nightfall, the fire had pretty much burnt out. There was a broad swath, around 100' wide or so, directly to the center of the island, about where the witch was. The destruction hadn't reached out much farther than that, and thankfully the town had been spared. We stayed to the edge of the burnt area and headed towards the witch. The dragon flew over us a few times, kind of keeping an eye on our progress.

There had been a light rain. The ground was still hot, but not really burning. It took us until about midnight to get to the witch's table. The stone table was lightly singed, and the orb was in the middle. There was no ball or chain left on the table. It seemed everything had just gone into the orb.

Brennen & Shatain heard rustling from the Northwest in the bushes. It didn't seem to be a critter. We drew our weapons, and we heard the voice of Robert in the bushes. He told us not to shoot and carefully exited the brush. He seemed a bit surprised to see us.

He'd received a note, telling him to collect the orb. He had no idea where it had come from; no one in his shop knew either. When pressed, he produced the note and handed it to me. All it said was to collect the orb and take it off of the island. I clambered up onto the table and took the orb. Brennen discussed any possible value of the cockatrice bodies; Robert offered us 200 gold for all 10 bodies.

Part way back to the tower, we could see the dragon & rider heading in to land. It seemed like the rider was staying away from us for the most part, so we decided to return to the town and assemble our crew. We arrived a few hours before dawn.

Everyone in the town had torches & lanterns going; it was very bright. There were a few people, looking very cautious, on porches. They asked us to stop about 30' away from the town. A man in his mid-40s, with a longsword & crossbow, was the one talking to us.

He told us about the events of the day - which we'd of course mostly seen. He told us a lot of the townsfolk were ready to leave the island. We said we were looking for crew, so that aligned well. He directed us to the inn; most of the people that wanted to leave were there.

There were armed guards at the inn. They let us in after a brief inspection. The townsfolk were discussing the pros & cons. They quieted down when we entered. We told them that the dragon didn't seem interested in confronting us; we could likely leave with minimal danger. Many of the townsfolk seemed ready to go. We told them we would row out to the ship and be back within an hour or so and talk more once we knew the status of the A'aloss & remaining crew. An older man stepped out of the crowd and told us that he knew how to captain a ship.

It seemed the man did know the basics; we offered to take him with us when we rowed out to the ship. As we conversed, Brennen believed the old man used to be a pirate. We weren't too concerned; he might be old, but he'd probably know how to fight the ship.

The A'aloss had lanterns burning brightly on the ship, and they spotted us pretty quickly. They welcomed us aboard after we identified ourselves. The kids woke up Saigarn, who was looking pretty groggy & stiff.

We asked about the status of the ship. Saigarn told us there was about a day's worth of repairs left. With more hands, it would be a lot faster. We introduced Saigarn to Jayden, who had volunteered to be our captain. Saigarn told us that the supply situation was bad; we'd need to bring in a full stock from the island. We could do some coastal hunting, but most of the nearby coast was the Demon Forest, so the game was a little suspect. Jayden walked through the ship with Saigarn, reviewing the remaining repairs and prioritizing them.

Saigarn told us he'd like to come back to town with us. We got back in the boat, and headed back towards town. Jayden told us that he wasn't sure how many people from town would accept his captaincy. We mentioned having Saigarn be the captain, with Jayden as the first mate. Jayden decided it would be best if we just didn't mention him and Saigarn would be the captain.

We entered the inn and explained we needed at least a dozen crew, but we could take pretty much anyone that could go, and we needed supplies. The unofficial leader of the townsfolk called on the people that wanted to go to stand up.

Only 6 stood. We continued extolling the need to leave the island; Oritan was likely coming, on top of the witch no longer being imprisoned and the dragon. We finally persuaded an additional 8 people to come. We told the townspeople we'd be back and forth throughout the next day while we gathered additional supplies.

Just before dawn, we picked up our 14 from the beach with their gear & supplies, and took them to the ship. The day passed uneventfully. The dragon continued to make long low sweeps over the island, occasionally returning to the tower. Robert decided to join us at the last minute.

We eventually hoisted anchor and sailed out. The dragon followed us, but stayed at a distance. We fished as much as we could. Jayden was very good as a quartermaster; he wasn't really in charge, but he was very helpful with everything going on to keep the ship moving. It seemed he was a little harsher than Saigarn, so having him as a consultant seemed to be the better option.

The dragon stayed with the ship the whole time. Every now and again, the dragon dipped into the Demon Forest for a few hours before returning to its observation post.

I had time to figure out the use of the magical items. The mace was unfiinished; it had a strong necromantic aura, but didn't actually do anything. It seemed it was intended to become a life draining mace. The chain shirt had a resistance to energy drains, and wasn't otherwise evil. The rubies from the mage were elemental stones containing fire elementals. The potion was an oil of black tentacles. We'd have to be careful with those. The wand was a wand of Scorching Ray, with 20 charges. I gave that to Shatain, as she was the only one who could use it.

I took a moment to cure the damage to my constitution, and heal myself up. We didn't see the mage nearby, so I took a moment to examine the different orb in the center of the main chamber.

The main chamber was south of the entrance. Side halls and chambers radiated out from the central room. They were roughly to the Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast.

Unlike the silver orbs (2' across) in the other chambers and above ground, this was much larger and black. It was about 20' across, made out of some sort of stone. Examining it carefully, I couldn't pick up on everything, but it seemed to radiate energy into the other 4 chambers where there were cells. It reverbrated and amplified through the chambers. Likely this was what kept the prisoners shielded and suspended.

While I examined the orb, Shatain did her best to check out the chambers. Sound echoed very strongly in here; she was at a severe disadvantage. Brennen & I kept a somewhat loud nonsensical conversation to give her cover. She made it down to the end of the Northwest chamber, and was on her way back when we heard the voice of the mage - "It seems we are at an impasse."

Shatain pointed out that we wanted to speak to the mage, we didn't want to fight. I interjected with basic pleasantries - we gave our names, and he gave us his - Sapien. I explained that we had 2 goals - as the price of our entry, we had promised the elemental that we would turn over the means of control to the prison, and we needed to free the witch.

The mage told us that it was his job to maintain control over the elemental; he couldn't allow us to free it. The witch was not as large a concern, though freeing her would make us some very powerful enemies.

I spoke a bit more with the mage. He clarified that the witch was not part of his charge; he was only responsible for the facility we were in. The most he could do to assist us was to turn a blind eye. He was willing to do so if we left; it was completely possible for us to just walk away.

I could tell that the mage was probably within 50' of us. The corridors were about 80' long, with 15' arches. We kept up the conversation for a while, but didn't get much useful information out of him. For a while he played the game, but eventually he tired. We were pretty sure he was down the SW corridor.

The mage began invoking a magical item. I suspected the orb. I put a burst of holy energy down the corridor where we thought he was, but didn't catch him. We heard a large boom from the black orb; it developed a large crack. It wasn't enough to daze us, but we then heard the sound of hundreds of bodies hitting the floor. Whatever was keeping the prisoners just failed.

Shatain moved down the hallway. About half-way down, he stopped; we could all see firelight growing from all the chambers with silver orbs. Shatain could see that the bodies of the prisoners were catching with some sort of magical fire, without consuming them. The bodies were not animating. The fire grew quickly off of each body. The wizard told us that we would be privy to something no one else knew - the purpose of the facility.

The fires grew, and took on the semblance of fire elementals. The mage suggested that we flee. Shatain dropped caltrops into the room. Each of the fire elementals was a medium or small elemental, and there were different sizes.

The firelord came out of the black orb in the center, in his serpentine form. He charged down the Southwest corner, and we heard a scream from the mage. We charged down the corridor. Shatain increased his speed, Brennen & I increased our resistance to fire, and charged down the corridor.

The firelord was attacking. The mage was ill-equipped to fend off its attacks. Shatain moved up to within 30', and managed to avoid the attacks of any fire elementals in the room. She fired at the mage, hitting for 18. I manifested a warhammer of spiritual energy, and hit the mage for 9. Brennen fired a masterwork arrow, but missed with his shot.

Shatain fired again. She couldn't get flanked against the firelord, missed with the first shot, but hit with the 2nd for 7. My spritual warhammer hit him for 8. I then fired my bow, hitting critically for 14, then again for 6. The mage died.

The firelord wasn't eager to let go of the mage. The firelord spoke - "My brothers, you are free! Go forth and burn the world!" The elementals disappeared into the silver orb. He turned to us, told us we'd done well, and gave us the sword back. He warned us we were free of his wrath, but the others would not be so discriminating.

Shatain hoisted his sword and the mage's body. A slim rod of wood dropped and rolled across the floor. There was also an amulet with a small black orb, which was also cracked. I grabbed the rod with a glove. The entire area was clear of fire elementals and other magic; it was very dark. We took out our lanterns. The cloud of poisonous fog at the entrance was dissipating. I attempted to identify the wand while we waited, but failed.

Once we were out on top, we could tell that all the fire elementals were on the island, and beginning to light things on fire. It looked like we'd need to let things burn out before we could leave.

We inspected the mage's belongings. The amulet was no longer magical, but did have some gold and other precious items. There was a magical crystal ball, 3 rubies of decent size and magical, a small lantern about the size of a small breadbox also magical, and 2 potions which were also magical, in addition to the wand. His robes were somewhat magical, threaded with a form of sunforged metal. Shatain found a coin purse with 30 platinum, 90 gold, and a signet ring. She split it with us... by giving Brennen & I 5 platinum and 20 gold each. We estimated there was about 1.5 lbs. of gold in it.

The crystal ball was a standard crystal ball. I couldn't get anything off of the rubies. The lantern revealed invisible creatures as its light passed over them. One of the potions would protect the user from scrying. The other one was beyond my knowledge; it was black, oily, and sealed in a very difficult manner.

It would have to wait a day. I still needed to identify the wand, the 2nd potion, the rubies, and the mace.