Session 5: The Rise of Tiamat Report

General Summary

Awakening the next morning, Gunthar found himself with a case of the ceramic shits from digesting the plate the night before. The party gathered in the inn, partook of breakfast and struck out to see the town and go SHOPPING! (shopping). Tossing some gold coins to the beggars, the group was transported over to the other end of town where they noticed a large dog staring at them from across the road. As Abnor and Balazar moved towards it, it "blinked" away and reappeared back on the rooftop of a house many feet over from them. After a few moment, it blinked away again and was gone. Puzzled the party moved towards the market. Walking into the potion shop, they met two female half orcs (one of which Shrumbo incapacitated with trophies) and the other that sold and traded potions. They also received some information on the blink dog and "other various things" that started happening in the town after the new mayor took over. After a few minutes, the group made their way towards the smithy. Opening the door a large fireball zoomed past Abnor's head and everyone noticed a female elf arguing with a fire elemental. After noticing the group enter, she stepped over to the front counter and greeted them. Abnor discussed the weapon that he was trying to make and the she elf agreed to take what he had done and finish it for him. After some light conversation with the fire elemental the weapon was finished and the party exited. Standing around for a moment, the group noticed a man pulling a cart behind an ox headed towards the potion shop. The group sent Gomm into an abandoned building to keep him busy and leave the vendor alone when suddenly another ox came charging down the alleyway towards the vendor. Balazar steps up to prove himself as the strongest avenger and steps in the way of the charging ox. Holding out his hands he stops it dead in its tracks and as the party regroups, they decide that it's best they move on their way as to not cause too much attention to themselves. The party makes their way towards the open market where they are greeted by all manner of people. Popup tents and vendors litter around the area with beggars, swindlers, and scam artists galore. Approaching one vendor in particular, they find themselves a tent run by a halfling with a giant black box. For 10 gold, she'll pull out something wonderful (or not) for them. Abnor decided to use the wand of detect magic and noticed a large magical presence a few tents over and that this black box was magical as well. Gomm goes first and she pulls out a glass rod. Little do they know, this glass rod is indestructible outside of divine intervention or the wish spell. Seeing that this could be interesting, the party spent a little more time there and acquired a potion that gave them protection from beasts, boots of orge swiftness, and a rat that can understand basic commands and can transform into a silver goblet using the code name starfire. Moving into the tent with the large magic item, they step in to see a goblin sitting down with a large sheet hanging up behind him. He tries to make an offer to sell them a "junk golem"; however, the party doesn't seem to interested. Gomm tried reasoning with him to get the "goblin special price" in which he did and went up an additional 1000 gold on the offer. The party nods, exits, but Gomm wasn't done yet; upon walking back in though, the merchant goblin threw his shoe at him and told him to get out and only serious inquiries were allowed. The group also met a vendor selling petrified adventurers for lawn decorations; Abnor gathered the information about where she got these from and the group moved along their way. Suddenly, the air pressure dropped immediately and all wildlife within the area began acting jittery and scared. For a few minutes, the world seemed to stand still. Lili (the Cleric of Bahamut) messaged the group and informed them that their dragon slayer powers were needed in the temple. The party agreed and made their way there. On the way, they noticed a large dragon heading towards the temple and just seemed to "disappear" when it got there; however, the presence still remained. Once all were gathered, the cleric spoke bringing everyone up to speed on the situation at hand. Severin the Wyrmspeaker had sounded the call for all chromatic dragons to return to the well of dragons where he was going to attempt to bring forth the Queen of Dragons Tiamat. All races: Metallic dragons, Giants, elves, humans, goblins, orcs, dwarves, halflings, and even creatures the group hadn't ever seen before answered the call. Hundreds of adventurers poured out; however, the party was asked to stay. Lili spoke with them and provided them provisions (potions and explained to them what their new items did) and told them to be ready within an hour. The group grabbed Gunthar and prepared and then climbed aboard the ancient gold dragon to prepare to leave. 5 metallic dragons set off from the city towards the well of dragons, each of them carrying adventurers on their backs to drop in.   On the way they were cornered by a blue and black dragon. A massive battle ensued in the air; however, the dragons knew that even though these chromatic dragons were the enemy, there was too much at stake to wait and deal with them here. As the lands turned to dust and desert, the group saw the well of dragons off in the distance. In the air were adventurers throwing spells and spears off of the backs of dragons while metallic dragons battled their chromatic counter parts. Getting over the spot they needed to, the adventurers leapt off and "parachuted in" with some help from the feather fall spell. As the group slowly descended down Balazar was attacked by Murabi in mid-air; however, the attack missed and the group landed scattered on the ground. Immediately Balazar went into a rage and charged after the dragon born who could only laugh and exclaim that he'll pay for not protecting his sister. The rest of the group notices this and begins running towards the fray. Balazar gets a good hit on Murabi and touts his strength, but this only made the paladin of Tiamat laugh. "If you hadn't gotten rid of that axe I gave you, you could've done this." and with two mighty swings from his own battle axe fueled by the corruption of the dragon queen he nearly takes Balazar down immediately. The rest of the group arrive and begin trying to help their friend; however, Murabi jumps backwards and exhales a cone of pure necrotic corruption causing Balazar to fall; in his unconsciousness he began contemplating if he really was the strongest avenger. The party struggled to take Murabi and his companion (a lionel?) down, but were able to do so. All around them were fights between cultists and adventurers; arrows, spells, shoes, and limbs flew through the air as battles spun up all around them. The group headed towards the temple of Tiamat where they entered in one of the caves next to it. They found a sacrificial room with corpses and a single cultist on the toilet (that was dispatched in a shitty way) along with a couple of drakes in another room fighting over an arm. The group made their way through until they opened a door and stepped into the grand hall of Tiamat. In the middle of the room was a large stone spire with a cultist standing atop wearing a mask with all 5 chromatic dragon heads on it. Around the room were spires that reached 50 feet into the air with a cultist hovering a top and one below surrounded by drakes and other cultists to protect them. Off in the distance they could see battles were happening all over so the party headed towards the red spire to begin their assault.   Jumping into the fray the group took down cultist after cultist and managed to take down a few drakes. Abnor particularly was performing well as he leaped and bounded between spires trying to take out the cultist performing the ritual. As the battled waged on, more and more people began to delve in, fighting, clawing, and doing everything they can to stop the ritual. Suddenly, with a massive rumble and loud roar the 5 headed dragon queen burst from the center spire. Almost immediately giving her saviors their due respect, she consumed Severin who stood before her and then began laying waste to all those around her. Melting, Freezing, Dissolving any and all that surrounded her. The group stood defeated watching in horror as fire and ice surrounded them...darkness swirled about their consciousness as they felt their very life leaving their bodies, their souls moving on to the great adventure in the sky...but, all was not lost. Balazar suddenly opened his eyes with a young, dwarven cleric placing her hand on his chest as tears began to stream down her face. As he looked around others started waking up and there were bodies lined up everywhere around the center spire. The young cleric yells out, "It's over! It's over! They did it! Everyone's waking up!" and turning back to Balazar and the others who she was attending to with tears still in her eyes, "It took 100 years...but it's finally over."