Player Characters
On the far side of the Lake of Shadows, where the path to Maerimydra continued, the party found a small beer stand, with several kegs stacked behind it, run by a dishevelled and drunk human. When Keth asked for a beer, he claimed he was out, and needed to buy more supplies. As Keth fetched a keg from the party's pack lizards, the man opened a keg from behind him and proceeded to drink it.
The party bedded down for the night near the beer stand. Keth and the man, who introduced himself as Akka, drank themselves into oblivion. The next morning, hearing that the party was headed to the Underdark city of Maerimydra, Akka asked to accompany them, saying again that he needed supplies. Then he beat the wooden beer stand into splinters.
The day's travel proceeded quietly, with only a single encounter: a half-dragon who asked question after question, providing cryptic responses to the party's questions, and generally annoying Keth.
Late in what should have been the afternoon of the following day, the path dead-ended at the foot of an incredibly tall cliff. A large iron chime hung from an outcropping, and a heavy mallet lay nearby. The party milled about, pondering their next step.
The sound of large wings flapping came from the empty dark above them, just before foulsmelling bags of tanglefoot dropped near each of them and a fiery explosion went off in their midst. Flying, gargoyle-looking demons (or demon-looking gargoyles that fly) swooped down and the battle was on. Pseth flew up to fight them in the air, and Akka shot at them with his bow. Keth stood his ground and hacked at anything in range. Three of the winged attackers went down, and the two survivors, one of whom was obviously the leader, escaped into the darkness up the cliff.
Still flying, Pseth scouted up the cliff face, seeing a cave opening about 80 feet up. Keth, after being partially healed by Yzarc, donned his slippers of spider climbing and headed up the cliff too. Yzarc started up soon after him. Akka, finding himself alone at the foot of the cliff, spent the time ransacking the bodies of the fallen.
Pseth spotted another cave opening, and saw more of the winged creatures in it. Shooting the closest one with a wand of magic missiles, he was surprised to see it plummet down the cliff face. Akka dodged the falling body and happily looted it too.
Pseth, along with Keth, who had climbed up to the second cave by then, charged into the cave. Creatures bullrushed them, pushing them out. Pseth, still under the effect of a fly spell, just hovered, while Keth managed to pull out a wand of levitate to prevent his own demise. Yzarc contributed a destruction spell that disintegrated the leader of the second band of creatures as Pseth flew about pummelling, and Keth hacked at anything any range. Two of the smaller winged creatures escaped up the cliff. Pseth towed Keth back to the cave, and then fetched Akka when the battle was over.
The party ransacked both caves, while Pseth scouted further up the cliff. The report of another cave sent the party up. This new cave seemed filled with billowing shadows, some of which seemed to be piles of coins. Which got Keth's attention.
A large, shadowy dragon appeared in the midst of the party and attacked them. As they moved to counterattack, total darkness fell. The battle raged in the dark, with the dragon biting and swinging its tail, delivering a significant bead-down. Akka summoned a creature that managed to entangle the dragon. The dragon disappeared into a deeper section of his cave. Yzarc put a blade barrier in place to encourage it stay back there, then the party took a few rounds to regroup and get healed.
The dragon attacked again, flying through the blade barrier and use its breath weapon against the party on the way out of the cavern. The dragon came back a few rounds later, and the fight continued until the dragon died. Keth stopped only long enough to soak up some healing before ransacking the dragon's hoard.
Everyone received 8000 XP. Yzarc became Level 15. Keth moved up to Level 16. [an error occurred while processing this directive]