D&D Session #42: Chapter 2 Finale

Armed with the knowledge that the door to the Citadel has been unlocked, the party escapes from the labyrinth. Jeff remarked out of character that he'd had enough of dungeons and was ready for some dragons.

However, nobody is every really ready for dragons. This became abundantly clear as the party exited the cave and found a massive dragon terrorizing the people waiting at the gate of the Citadel.

The dragon looked familiar, exactly like the dragon that Helvetica kept around. The dragon's booming voice, heard as the party scrambled up the path, confirmed its identity.

"You have evaded me for the last time, mortal!"

Helvetica was heard wondering how in the world the dragon had followed them, but the dragon was not forthcoming. The wizened wizard attempted to start the chant that would bring the dragon back under his control, but he kept getting the words wrong. The dragon swallowed Helvetica whole before the party was able to reach them.

The the dragon now advancing on the crowd of people in front of the gate, the party approached the dragon from behind. They managed to catch his attention just enough for the crowd to open the door to the Citadel and close it behind them.

However, the party soon found themselves grossly outmatched. The dragon, released as it was from Helvetica's control, suddenly seemed more menacing and powerful than anything they had ever encountered. The scales were as steel plates, with no apparent weakness. In a flash the dragon had obliterated a hapless summoned dretch and nearly ripped through Kenaiyo, one of the party's toughest fighters.

The party retreated, running at full speed back to the airship. Kirtan, needing very little explanation, took to the sky. The party had not actually entered the Citadel, yet they managed to learn enough that Kirtan felt they deserved to be rewarded.

Upon returning through the Gate to the Nexus, the group found Mal awaiting them. He claimed that "Grandpa" was waiting for them and was ready to hear their report. buck in particular was not happy to see Mal and would have killed him right then and there, yet Mal evaded Buck's attempts to pull him into a "friendly" murderous hug. Ere0sat's attempts at discerning Mal's alignment failed to product results, as neither Detect Evil for Detect Chaos seemed to detect anything in the child.

Likewise, Mal was not nearly as warm to Kirtan as he was to the rest of the party. He told Kirtan that Grandpa was not ready to see him yet, and that he would have to wait until summoned. Kirtan seemed mildly amused at Mal's authoritative tone, yet said nothing, setting about the business of getting the ship ready for the next trip.

The party met with the Lord of the Nexus, telling him what they learned from the Realm of Fire. Though they had many stories that did not seem terribly relevant to the Lord's interests, he managed to cut through their stories and observations to get a clear picture of something useful from each of them. Most notable was Kenaiyo, whose status as a native of the Realm of Fire granted him more information than most.

Given the loss of two of the party's members, the Lord of the Nexus granted additional rewards to Kenaiyo to allow him to catch up with the rest of the party. Beyond that, the party members were each granted three runes or favors: one for completing the mission, one for bringing back valuable information, and another as per Kirtan's agreement with the party to investigate the Citadel, though the Lord of the Nexus was not terribly happy about Kirtan making that deal on his behalf.

Finally, Buck inquired as to the Lord's plan for Mal, particularly since Buck was very interested in killing the child. The Lord explained that he planned to shape Mal into someone who would help him take over the Realm of Air when the time came. Buck requested that he be allowed to kill Mal once the Lord was done with the kid, which the Lord agreed to.

With their runes and favors taken care of, the party joined up with Kirtan to head toward the Realm of Stone. Just as they were about to enter the Gate, another person appeared in their midsts: Miles, Mal's caretaker from the Air Realm, who had been secretly a Ma'ari all along.

The party and Kirtan had no time to react between the arrival of Miles and their entry into the Gate. They entered the maddening vortex and were on their way to the Realm of Stone, with a Ma'ari in tow.

MVP for this session was Kenaiyo, both for taking the brunt of a dragon's attacks and surviving, and for providing a detailed sketchbook to the Lord of the Nexus, filled with information about the Realm of Fire. Now we'll have to see how useful Kenaiyo will be in a realm that is not also his home...