Tux suggests we go see Oalian, the ancient greatpine tree that is the ruler of the Eldeen Reaches. He is known as the Great Druid, now some 5,000 years old, with memories stretching back to the dawn of the current age. He is likely to know more history of the seals than most living things in this plane. He is not difficult for Tux to find. Upon locating the massive tree, Tux approaches slowly and cautiously, though, he quickly realizes he has no idea which side is his "front."
After several minutes of greetings, Oalian graciously offers us council on the matter of the cracked seal. Ki approaches and describes the events at the seal in the Demon Wastes (and more infomation on the lich) and in the seal in Xen'drik. She neglects to mention that many seals are breaking. Oalian is not pleased and is troubled by the news. He suspects that the liches are being informed by an outside party.
He spends hours recounting the history of the seals and various tangential stories of the past. His speech is slow and meticulous, Tux is the only one able to listen for very long. Cas is disturbed by the very idea of a talking tree and waits further off in the woods. After a while of gathering (way, way more than enough) information on the seals, the party takes leave of Oalian, thanking him for his help.
His most disturbing news is out of the Mounlands. Oalian has told us that a seal used to be located in the city of Sire, now destroyed. But we've already been there: it's where we fought the Lord of Blades. But we also left behind an impostor and an army. The group decides this is the most pressing of the seals, and we head back out to the Mournlands, for the ruined city of Sire. We are going back to attempt to locate the opening of the plane that is in the warforged stronghold. Our search leads us back to the cavern where we fought the Lord of Blades.
Upon entering the main passage, we are surprised to come across a topaz dragon, resting on a hoard of gold and gems. We are hidden under Ki's invisibility and silence, but it seems to see us. Cas, with her ring of invisibility on, approaches a little closer. It calls out for her to stop. She does. It asks what she is doing in this cave. She explains that she is a lone adventurer, exploring this cave. He tells her to leave, and she does while praising his graciousness, because dragons love that. We leave the cave post haste.
We head up above the cave entrance. Our new plan is to enter from where Tux and Malik had entered when we overthrew the Lord of Blades. While climbing up, Rick remembers that he can still use his ectoplasmic legs to climb despite the fact that he is now a Hobgoblin. It is upsetting in the least.
On top of the cave, now on the flats, we are attacked by a thoqqua. This water elemental does a lot of damage to Malik by crashing down on him. Suddenly we remember the sponge. Maybe it can save us one more time! Ki produces it from her pack, while Constance gets a rope and shapes the rope like a basket around it. The rest of the group continues to attack the creature. When it is ready, Malik takes the sponge-on-a-rope weapon and throws it onto the thoqqua. It does upwards of 50 damage, but the monster has over 150 health, and it takes us several rounds to defeat it.
water elemental (thoqqua)
Now rid of this monster, we move towards the chasm. We peer down through the crack, into the main cavern below. The city is similar to before, but instead of being totally ruined, it looks like it's being re-built. Ki recognizes shifters among the crowds. There are also warforged, like we expected, and more water elementals. We decide that this is a strange army to work together. We also decide that this must be the work of the "new" Lord of Blades we left behind. We should never have left him, this army is our fault (the good aligned characters think). The others are more interested in why this is happening.
Just as we stand around, trying to make a plan, a topaz dragon begins to fly up. He seems like he could be the same one from below. We only have moments. Tux shifts into an animal. Malik has such improved hiding that he finds a place to hide. Constance and Rick do nothing. Cas disguises as a warforged. And Ki shifts into the Lord of Blades. Nothing can go wrong now. She activates glibness.
The dragon comes through the crack and seems surprised by us. "What are you doing here? I just saw you below," it asks us. Ki, in all her powerful glory, responds, "I am the Lord of Blades, and I have returned to you. The impostor you follow is a fake!!" The dragon is clearly confused. "So...," he thinks out loud, "the creature that's been paying me all this time, isn't really the Lord of Blades?" He looks ready to kill, not caring about justice or goodness, only money and gold. "I will pay you more to help me regain my power!" Ki spits out, to stop him. The dragon is placated.
Cas reaches for her backpack, going for the Deck of Transformations in her bag. Ki sees this, pleased with the idea. Cas draws the deck, "as payment for your service the Lord of Blades offers you a prize worthy of your splendor." The dragon pauses for a moment. Cas yells, "what do you say to your Lord??" The dragon perches on the edge of the crack, he agrees to draw. In moments, the topaz dragon is transformed into an Orc. He is furious, but he has no weapons or armor, and our group takes him down easily. They go to leave him, but Tux makes sure to coup d'etat him.
Dragon's Loot:
- (6000) gold
- (10,000) worth of 100 gems
- 6 minor magic items:
- (1000) +1 heavy steel shield (keep, Rick)
- (300) potion of eagle's splendor (+4 Char)
- (25) scroll of endure elements
- (1500) javelin of lightning (keep, Malik)
- (4500) dorge ("wand") of 2nd level power energy stun (keep, Constance)
- (150) power stone of 2nd level power concealing amorpha (keep, Constance)
- 3616 each
We split the treasure and begin to brainstorm a new idea on how to enter the cavern. Cas remembers now some information about the planes. Both water elementals and gem dragons are from the water plane. It's possible that there is a breaking seal under the cavern, but it's now more likely that someone has opened a portal to the water plane to summon these creatures.
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