Tales from the Mud Road #8
Hours later, Dane awakes in a pile of garbage. His head is spinning and there is no sign of his friends. Two dwarven sentries stand guard at the mouth of the alley, but they seem unaware of Dane or the hooded figure examining the crime scene. The stranger hears Dane groan and approaches. She lowers her hood and Dane recognises the aloof young woman he unsuccessfully seduced on the skyrail into Khar. She introduces herself as Enna and wants Dane’s help breaking Dravis out of the citadel. She heals Dane’s wounds and gives him a dragonglass dagger to defend himself. Dane marvels at the rare weapon. Clambering out of the garbage, Dane spots something strange on the floor of the alley, a metallic symbol he remembers seeing in the temple of Joreas. Were the dwarven priests involved in the ambush?
Within the citadel, the dwarven guards have locked up the other members of the party and sealed their gear in the evidence vault, including the human bones they found in the Bag of Holding. Davernoch slowly begins piecing himself together, trying not to wake the snoozing guard in the room. Several of his ribs clatter to the ground, waking the sentry, who cries out and goes for his gun….
In the dungeon, the rest of the party have been charged with the possession of illegal weapons. Elfie and Xiao share a cell. Dravis is in with one of the dwarven ruffians. Yi is in with Ringo Moon, who has been arrested for selling magical items without a permit.
Dravis wants information from the other dwarf and attempts to beat it out of him. This goes horribly wrong; the ruffian gains the upper hand and starts beating information out of Dravis. Sergeant Emenra breaks up the fight and gives Dravis the opportunity to break out, if he is prepared to abandon his non-dwarf allies. Dravis refuses the offer.
A gunshot sounds elsewhere in the citadel. While Emenra is distracted, Dravis lifts the ring of keys from his belt. Once the coast is clear, Dravis frees himself and the rest of the heroes. Ringo wants the heroes to recover his inventory from the evidence vault and the party head towards the disturbance. The vault door is blasted open from the inside and Davernoch emerges from the wreckage. Ringo grabs his inventory and the heroes recover their own gear, as well as anything else they can lay their sticky mitts on. Yi powers up his energy gauntlets and punches a new door in the side of the citadel. Sergeant Emenra pursues the party in the street, his musket primed and his eyes hardened by betrayal. Dravis utters a futile apology to his old friend as Yi knocks him unconscious.
The escapees meet up with Dane and Enna and take refuge in Ringo Moon’s magical shop. They are able to snatch some rest and peruse the gnome’s merchandise. Dane buys three small tin soldiers that can transform into iron golems and a small silver bell that summons an incorporeal manservant. Davernoch purchases a pair of masks that disguise him as either a dwarf or a goblin. Yi buys a pair of magical rollerskates that increase his pace and running die. Dravis purchases a vorpal boomerang that bypasses all armour and shield modifiers. Finally, Elfie buys an enchanted longsword called Winter’s Edge. The blade enables Elfie to create icy barriers and summon bitter winds that chill his enemies to the marrow.
While Ringo bags up their purchases, Enna explains that she received a letter from Dravis’ missing father, indicating he suspected something funny was going on beneath the temple of Joreas. He planned to sneak into the temple using a network of old lava tunnels. Enna plans to follow the same route and discover Bravis’ fate. The party want to spend a week making natural healing rolls, but aint’ no-one got time for that shit. Enna reminds the heroes they are being hunted by the dwarven militia and won’t be able to evade their notice forever. They have to go now! Dravis is on board and the rest of the party reluctantly agree.
Entering the lava tunnels is like stepping into an oven. Everyone with skin breaks out in sweat. Enna follows the map that Bravis left for her, but soon finds the way ahead is blocked by rockfall. Dravis examines the blockage and determines a section of roof was deliberately collapsed. Enna backtracks to find another way to the temple.
The party enter a large cavern. Cracks appear in the floor as they cross to the other side and they realise they are walking atop the fragile volcanic crust above a lake of boiling lava. Two giant magma serpents break through the crust, breaking it into smaller islands bobbing in the lava. Elfie brandishes his new sword and summons walls of ice to surround and protect the party from the serpents' fiery breath. The heroes defeat the serpents and continue on toward the temple.
They discover something unexpected. A secret so dangerous the dwarves will kill to keep it.
Joreas did not destroy all the dragons.
He took one prisoner, chained it up below his temple and stole its fire to forge the weapons he would use to destroy the rest of that ancient species.
A dozen sturdy chains - each link the width of a giant’s wrist - bind the dragon. Dwarven inquisitors man siege weapons aimed at the shackled beast. High Priest Khevoli Smelthart clutches a familiar red crystal. He is using the Heart of Greed to control the dragon! The party try to sneak closer, but they mess that up and announce their intrusion to all. The dwarves attack! The heroes wipe out the crew of a ballista and man it themselves. Dane tosses his toy soldiers to the ground and they transform into a trio of hulking iron golems. Together, the golems lift the ballista and turn it towards the High Priest. Smelthart shrieks at the dragon to destroy the interlopers, but he is too late. One of the golems is melted into slag by the dragon’s breath, but Dane fires the siege weapon and impales the High Priest to a wall. Dravis rushes forward to secure the Heart of Greed.
Released from the dwarf’s control, the dragon rages and attacks indiscriminately. Enna moves forward and drops her human disguise, revealing herself to be a saurian sorceress. She calms the dragon and learns that his name is A’itair. She persuades the dragon to return to Parashahr and lead her people against the coalition of humans and dwarves that seek to conquer their homeland. The heroes are not sure they are cool with this, but there is little they can do to stop Enna mounting A’itair’s back and escaping up through the forge flume. There is a distant rumble as the dragon breaks through the floor of the temple.
The heroes look at one another and wonder what exactly they have just done.
TBC… in a future rotation!
