The Adventures of Cardigan Black – Episode 4 “Still Running… This Time from a Dragon”

So this week I found myself running away from a dragon, but none of my party members died, which is nice, and I also didn’t die, which is nicer. We came awfully close to a death, but the dice were just favourable enough not to make it so. Not that things were easy, no sir. But luck was on our side this week. Mostly.

Once again, let’s begin at the beginning. As we prepared to revisit the necromancer, Airina admitted that our purpose in going back was to kill the zombies and probably him as well (it was part of the price for her whole ‘being brought back to life by her god’ thing). A little irked by her unwillingness to be honest in the first place, the others nevertheless agreed that undead were abominations that ought to be destroyed out of hand, and I went along because what else was I going to do? I mean, there were still at least five or six orcs lurking in the countryside somewhere. Going off alone was not a wise man’s decision in this instance, despite my misgivings given the notion that undead are people too. A different kind of people, sure, but that’s no reason to go off and kill them all.

Unless they’re halflings. Fuck them.

Anyway, we reached the tower and noticed the aftermath of a fight. I spotted a red cloak on a particularly fresh zombie, and when we chatted with the necromancer he revealed that the Redbrands had attacked him and he had killed them and replaced a couple of zombies they had killed with their dead (and burned the rest – one of the first things we saw was the fire pit full of bodies). We asked if there had been a woman and a couple of kids with them, and he said ‘no’ – a lie, as we shortly discovered.

The tension wrought by our unexpected return visit was soon shattered by Airina casting Turn Undead, scaring away nine of the twelve zombies, followed by me, as the fastest to react, running up to the necromancer and stabbing him in the kidneys. Really hard. Sneak Attack is amazing. And all the while, I was trying to explain that I never wanted to do this.

What followed was, in no uncertain terms, a fucking massacre of the necromancer and his remaining zombies. It was, without doubt, the most successful fight we’ve had so far. No one went unconscious, no one died, I got pummelled with Magic Missiles but other than that no one was injured overly much. It was really great. Really, really great.

And in the necromancer’s tent, we found the murdered woodcarver’s family. He had decided to take them as his slaves, so our murder of him was doubly a good thing. Having finished our business in this area, we returned the family to Phandalin.

A day or two later, being well-rested and satisfied that we would gain no more leads by hanging around town, we left and journeyed north, to the one outstanding lead we had. We had been told of a druid in the ruined town of Thundertree who knew of the location of Wave Echo Cave. We hoped he might also be able to direct us to Cragmaw Castle, since our alternative was to try to find a goblin patrol somewhere in the forest and hope they could lead us without, you know, all of us getting killed or whatever.

The druid was actually in the second building we tried in Thundertree (the first was a ruin full of evil twig creatures). I suggested knocking on the door of the clearly in use, reinforced building, but Parvus decided he wanted to knock it down instead. With his forehead. While all he managed was to leave a dent, it did serve as a knock, and the druid informed us the door wasn’t locked and that we may come on in.

Chatting with him, he told us the location of Cragmaw Castle, and promised the location of Wave Echo Cave if we could help him get rid of a slight dragon problem. A young green dragon, Venomfang, it’s name turned out to be, had set himself up in the tower on the north end of town, and our druid friend asked us to get rid of it by whatever means we chose. Agreeing (what choice did we have) we left Droop with him to drink tea while we decided to search the rest of the ruins.

Now, I will say, our plan was to search the ruins (avoiding the tower), then go find the castle, rescue Gundren, and maybe come back later to deal with the dragon. That was our plan. Bear that in mind.

What actually happened was, we found another building with a locked door, and before Mercenary and Parvus could pry it open with a crowbar, I knocked. As it turned out, it was occupied by about six dragon cultists that had come to beseech Venomfang and offer it their service. Thanks to my quick thinking and my silver tongue, I convinced them that we were likewise dragon enthusiasts. Somehow, we ended up immediately accompanying them to the dragon’s tower to say hi.

Honestly, I expected one of my “good” companions to realise worshipping Tiamat was not common amongst honest, good people, and deal with the cultists accordingly before we got to the tower. But no one made a move, so in a way, they were condoning the cultists’ actions and everything that came next. I instigated it, but I’m a conduit of chaos and anarchy. They’re the ones supposed to keep things (and me) in line.

Anyway, we met Venomfang, and the cultist leader started chatting to him in Draconic – a language none of us understand, so none of us knew what he was saying. I was massively on edge in the presence of a goddamn dragon, though, so I was holding an action to Dash the moment I felt so much as looked at poorly. It was when we were isolated by the cultists – who all went to one side of the room – that my Spidey Sense really kicked in, and the moment Venomfang called us ‘flies’ I was out, hurdling Airina (who was standing in the doorway) and running past the three cultists that had remained outside the room.

Then Venomfang breathed poison on my companions, doing a shit-tonne of damage and bringing both Parvus and Mercenary to unconsciousness. Thus the fight began.

While I conducted hit and run tactics, running in and out of the building and one-hit killing a cultist nearly once per turn, the others were ‘facing’ the dragon. By ‘facing’, I mean Airina healed both the others up, for Parvus to hit it with some a powerful smite, to it knocking them both back down and nearly killing Parvus with a second poison breathe (2 hit points short of instant death), for Airina to then get a critically-hitting Guiding Bolt, and for the amount of damage it had sustained being enough for it to flee with ominous, foretelling threats.

Then I ran back into the room and we made short work of the remaining cultists. Job done, we looted the dragon’s horde – or, rather, I looted it while the others rested and/or were still unconscious (but stable). But I only skimmed a little off the top, this time. Finally, as dragon scarers if not quite dragon slayers, we returned to the druid.

Except for a touch more exploration of the ruins, where Parvus and Mercenary both almost died again thanks to a massive swing of luck going in favour of a pair of giant spiders (seriously, two natural 20s for one’s attacks – in a row), we were done for the day (and the session). We still have about half of the ruins of Thundertree to explore, and then our next goal is to rescue Gundren, of course.

Next week, assuming we reach Cragmaw Castle, is going to be a big one, I think. But, this week, we fought a dragon, and didn’t die, so I’d call that a win for us. I’m sure Venomfang will come back later, once it’s all grown up, to murder us all, but until then, we’ll see how things go, I guess.