Chapter 19 - The Twilight Cincture
Contents
About the Saga
Having defeated the Wing That Hunts and succeeded in capturing the Stag pursued by the Wild Hunt, the heroes confront their greatest challenge: the dragon known as the Green Blight!
Timeframe
- Campaign Date: Wandering the Fey Lands (circa Flocktime, CY 515)
- Real World Date: October 18, 2015
- Read other Obsidian Frontier Sagas
Cast of Characters
- Burgell Nackle (Damon), a gnome bard with dubious ethics
- Fargrim Frostbeard (Damon), dwarven cleric of Muamman Duathal
- Finn Underbow (Jim), a halfling ranger
- Hawkwind (Nate), human warrior on the edge of time
- Tänévir Calywyn (Nate), a young elven ranger who has come to apprentice with Súlimëtasar of the Griffins Guild
- Telthanas (NPC), a Half-Elf adventurer scribe of the Griffins Guild
- Hank Ironvow (NPC), male half-orc fighter 3
- Shump Bloodoath (NPC), male half-orc fighter 3
Notable Quotes
"Your mother was a siamese cat!" -- Burgell Nackle
What Has Come Before
Our heroes, racing ahead of a large thunderstorm, entered the hills at the eastern edge of the Drowned Plain. Desperate for shelter, they located a cave in the hills ... and its cyclops inhabitant. They defeated the giant (the creature all the while protesting that it hadn't bothered anyone) and threw its corpse down the hill. They spent several days in the cave while the storm raged outside, and then eventually emerged to continue their quest.
They plunged into the Outer Band of the Verdant Waste and soon came upon a patrol of the Wing That Hunts -- kobolds serving the Green Blight. They killed most of the creatures -- including a half-green dragon hybrid -- but a few escaped deeper into the woods. They encountered a band of time-lost adventurers who had been unknowingly trapped in the Waste for a century; rather than join up with them the other adventurers shouted their disbelief and decided to head out of the Waste to see the world for themselves. There after the heroes heard hunting horns blowing and caught sight of a Great Stag that crossed their path.
Ignoring the threat behind them, the heroes chased after the stag, finally catching it in a great autumn-like clearing. Once captured, the Great Stag gave them a series of boons, then fled off into the rain-drenched forest. Left behind, the heroes found the clearing began to fade away, reverting to the previous game path they were on. Worse, the sounds of the horns had drawn much, much closer...
The Saga
Lost in the Feywild
The heroes moved on from the Grove of the Stag, ducking down a game trail along the side of a ravine. Hawkwind and Finn caught glimpses of the displacer beasts, and were disturbed to see that they were sniffing after them. Hawkwind tried a cunning distraction ... but failed, drawing their attention. The beasts then chased the adventurers down into the ravines. Meanwhile, the sound of distant hunting horns drew closer.
Then the displacer beasts were suddenly among the party, fighting tooth, claw, and tentacle. The adventurers lashed out with arrow and sword while Burgell shouted his familiar insults ("Your mother was a siamese cat!", "You're just a big house cat"). After several rounds of fighting with the displacer beasts, the chase hunters Unseelie arrived. They are ... displeased ... when Tanevir admitted the adventurers had captured the stag and took its boons.
The Unseelie hunters told Tanevir and his companions that Prince Selanor is going to be unhappy ... and that a new hunt is needed. They graciously -- and with the slightest of evil grins -- offered the adventurers a head start.
The adventurers accepted the Unseelie's offer and ran.
As they fled, Tanevier remembered that Prince Selanor was an exceedingly capable warrior and wizard and decided a distraction was in order. He planted a bean from the bag of beans ... and summoned a herd of albino mastodons. The creatures came thundering in, throwing off the pursuit and allowing the party to escape.
The heroes headed deeper into the Inner Band. Once they were sure they'd escaped the Unseele, they rested for an hour. For some -- particularly Telthanas and Burgell -- it felt eight hours passed in that same time -- causing their minds to become distracted and weary. Reluctantly breaking their camp, the heroes begin their quest for the interior. Burgell immediately began to complain and ramble on about the various surreal distractions around them. Frustrated at how the gnome was slowing their pace, Hawkwind picks up the tired, rambling Burgell and carried him.
After an hour of travel, the rest of the heroes found themselves growing disoriented and lost. Talthanas starts falling behind compelling the party's half-orcs to grab him by the arms and start carrying him through increasingly dark and strange wood.
Soon, the rest of the party was feeling the same drag on their bodies and souls. They take refuge in the hollowed out center of a great tree. Sleep finds them ... but only for a short time. After only a few hours they woke to find that strange plant creatures that Tanevir recognized as "blights" were rising up through the forest floor to entangle and then attack them.
Suddenly it wasn't just the blights who were grabbing them. A heavy fog filled the chamber, cling cold and wet to their skin. As the fight continued the heroes hit from outside the tree by a noxious poison gas with overcomes the barbarian half-orc Shemp and the elven rogue Talthanas,.
From outside the tree a booming voice shouted "Interlopers! Blessed of the Foul Stag! You do not belong here ... *and you will die for your insolence!*"
Tanevir and Hawkwind immediately ran out of the tree and into a small horde of humanoid shapes. As they got their bearings, the figures' skin rippled. A cloud of needles slammed into them, cutting at their skin.
Recovering, they looked up and saw a green dragon lurking in the boughs of the tree. It's iridescent emerald scaled glistened in the twilight, and rage swirled in its purple/green eyes.
"Honor-less beast!" Tanevir shouted up, "come down here and fight us."
The dragon laughed and took to the air. "No foul elf, your death shall come from the sky." The Green Blight then caused a field of spikes to grow up beneath the heroes, hindering their movement.
Tanevier knew what to do. While his friends struggled out of the tree and engaged the dragon overhead and the blights around them, he dropped to one knee. He quickly got out a small bag, scooped in some earth, dropped in four beans, and watered them. He then tied off the bag, attached it to an arrow ... and fired it at the dragon.
His shot was good, striking the dragon in its open maw even as it continued to harass them. Immediately the magical beans began to sprout. The first morphed into a statue, startling the dragon who spit it out. The construct fell to the ground and began mocking Tanevir for his arcane incompetence.
The second bean caught in the dragon's throat, summoning a toothed maw that began to bite at the dragons' insides and causing it to choke. Then a huge gold cage magically appeared around the dragon, causing it to fall from the sky and land on the ground. Except the ground was no longer the ground. The fourth bean -- which the dragon had managed to spit out earlier -- transformed into a pool of lava. Trapped by the magical cage, the dragon drowned in the lava, dying in a way few could ever have anticipated.
Experience
Player Characters
- Burgell Nackle: 2200
- Fargrim Frostbeard: 2200
- Finn Underbow: 2200
- Tänévir Calywyn: 2200
Non-player Characters
- Hawkwind: 1100
- Telthanas: 1100
- Hank Ironvow: 1100
- Shump Bloodoath (dead): 1100
Treasure
- The dragon's hoard is detailed in Chapter 20 - The Hoard of the Green Blight.
Resources
- None.