The Wyrm's Wrath

A sage once told me that the worst curse isn't given by fiends or fey, but friendly folk. It is the blessing "may you live in interesting times". And the times only seem to be getting more and more interesting.
 
After the capture of Velkynvelve, we decided to replenish the nearly-empty armory by striking up a deal in Gracklstugh. Using the settlement's teleportation circle, I brought Jaaski, Tanebi, Hestan, Jorlan, Blinks, and myself along. But once we arrived, we found ourselves in another mess. Errde Blackskull, leader of the Steel Guard, had been arrested under suspicion of conspiracy to commit treason. We were able to get time to talk to her, and it turns out that without the red dragon egg, things only got more desperate for the Keepers of the Flame. They attacked the Gray Ghosts more viciously, who retaliated more viciously, until finally both decided that the Steel Guard were hampering their feud too much for their tastes. Thus, the accusations against Errde. Oddly, however, the Council of Savants, the group that represented the derro's interests in Gracklstugh, put forth their own accusation. Since they didn't have anything to gain that we could tell, it seemed quite suspicious. Thus, we made a trip to the Hall of Sacred Scrolls to investigate.
 
On the way, we were accosted by derro gone violently mad. With no way to talk them down, we were forced to dispatch of them. At that point, we noticed that despite the group that had harried us, the derro dwellings seemed to be deserted. We hurried to the Hall of Sacred Scrolls quicker, with Jaaski cowing the Hall's sentries after she'd more or less roared at them. We entered, and the doors slammed shut behind us. I lit up a flame in my hand, and that's when we saw it.
 
Blood. Blood everywhere, splashed without pattern or purpose. We were in some sort of atrium, and beyond lay the quarters for the thirty-six members of the Council. Several of the doors (thirteen in total) bore a symbol that looked like this.
 
Y
 
Those that did held rooms beyond that were undisturbed; pristine, even. In one we found an odd book, with a collection of names within it. Page after page of names were listed, and near the back was some sort of symbol. Whatever it was seemed to affect Jaaski; she seemed to shake it off, but the experience worried me all the same. After what we found later, I wonder...
 
The rooms without the mark bore signs of struggle, as if their occupants were dragged out of them, kicking and screaming all the way. The rooms held no blood or other bits within them, though, nor any treasure; possibly they were needed for a ritual, given what we saw later.
 
Even without any obvious treasure, it was clear that these derro were living in extreme comfort; I know wizards with less opulence than those ash-skinned maniacs. What's more, the area within the Hall of Sacred Scrolls was far greater than without; I spoke that it was likely the Council had created a demiplane to house their Hall, and that they had at least enough magic power to be able to create such, which made them dangerous.
 
With no other way but forward, we continued past the living quarters to a set of double doors.
 
Past them was a large area that looked as if it was where all of the derro came to worship some sort of Guardian. Which one, I couldn't say, given that strewn everywhere were corpses, treasure, and blood atop the whole thing, with only the central pathway clean enough to travel on. So, not a lot of context clues. Ahead of us were a dozen derro, dressed in robes. I assume they were members of the Council in name, but cultists in deed. They spoke of a ritual, and how Demogorgon would come to "bless" both them and the Wyrmsmith. Then, to complete their ritual, they told us we were going to become the final sacrifices. Jaaski mocked them with vigor, and much to my surprise, it actually seemed to harm them somehow. There was little time to examine the situation, however, as that spurred them to attack us.
 
It was a tough fight, but thanks to the strength of my comrades (and a few well-chosen fireballs from yours truly), the cultists were dead. Hearing sarcastic applause behind us, we turned to find a thirteenth derro approaching, holding a small statuette resembling a two-headed dragon. He said that we were too late, that things were already in motion; the usual claptrap. Once more, Jaaski hurled an insult that seemed to actually cause him harm (I suspect psychic damage). The fight against him was much quicker; upon his death, we felt the earth beneath us begin to rumble. Jaaski rushed forward, slicing the derro's head off, but it didn't stop the rumbling. Confused, she picked up the statuette, upon which we found ourselves transported outside the entrance of the Hall, the sentries' bodies slumped next to the door. Overhead, we heard a roar of rage and pain. We looked up, and there we saw the results of the cultists' ritual.
 
Themberchaud, now with two heads and driven mad. He began attacking the city, using his breath weapon to blast the area or clawing some of the structures. Tanebi, having been trained in knowing how to battle dragons back at his monastery, took us through the surprisingly simple procedure. First, we needed a way to take away the dragon's air superiority; either by blinding it and thus forcing it to land, restraining it so that its wings couldn't catch the air, or crippling its wings and forcing it down to ground. What with the two heads and not nearly enough rope at hand, we decided on the third option. Secondly, we needed to be mindful of magic spells, though without knowing much about Themberchaud's magic aptitude, we weren't sure what spells to expect.
 
Since Tanebi was the only one who could fly under his own power (making me wish even harder for wings), he volunteered to act as a decoy, pulling the dragon towards us so that we could get Jaaski on top of it to attack the wings. Using my Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, I called forth an earth elemental, using its strength to aid Jaaski in her temporary flight. The plan worked surprisingly well; Tanebi displayed the emblem of Bahamut on his shield to get Themberchaud's attention and then brought it to swoop over us, whereupon the earth elemental threw Jaaski up with all its might as she jumped with all of hers. Though she stumbled a bit on the landing, she otherwise made it onto the dragon flawlessly.
 
Jaaski began hacking away at the wings, but the unsure footing made it difficult for her to aim a solid strike, and both she and Tanebi were summarily bathed in the dragon's fire breath (the two heads made it possible to breathe both forward and backward). Out of reflex she called for some magical health; on hearing that, Themberchaud turned one of its heads toward us, and wheeled around to swoop on us. He began to build up energy to carpet us in flame, but Jaaski refused to let him do it, slamming her axe so deeply into one of his wing stems it almost severed the bone. The injury sent the dragon plummeting like a rock, and Jaaski was thrown off as it crashed down. With Tanebi coming down to land, he and Jaaski took up positions near the heads of Themberchaud, letting us bring up the rear. But the back of a dragon is no safe zone, and he began to slam his tail around, with both Hestan and the earth elemental taking solid hits. The dragon wasn't shy about using his magic, either; he cast magic missile from his wing phalanges, and eyebite from both sets of eyes. Unfortunately, with the fireballs I'd used on the cultists earlier I wasn't able to counterspell any of the dragon's magic, so we took quite a beating.
 
The battle was incredibly hectic, but a few highlights were: Hestan using his pact magic to slam so much force into the dragon to knock it flat, Tanebi smiting with enough power to punch through the dragon's body, Jorlan peppering its wings with a tight cluster of arrows, and even Blinks, our faithful blink dog, risking life and limb to put a stop to the mad dragon, hopping onto its back and biting into the wounds that Jaaski had left. But by far the best strike was the last; Jaaski slammed her axe into the dragon's ribcage hard enough to shatter a few of its ribs, then slashed through the breakage to rip his organs to pieces. The dragon let out a bellow of pain, and let out its last breath, scorching all of us. Jaaski told us that at the moment the life left its eyes, she glimpsed a hint of gratitude. Perhaps, in those final moments, Themberchaud truly knew freedom.
 
His last breath changed all of us. I could feel its magic clinging to me like sweat, but unlike sweat, it seemed to draw something out of me. Something...buried, that not even I knew I had. I'm still sorting it out, but I haven't had time to experiment with it yet. Jaaski's change was far more noticeable; her senses had been amplified so much as to be like the dragon's, granting her a sort of blind-sight, and her eyes began to flicker with a glow, as if her irises had become blue flames. Hestan and I both gained patches of scales on our skin; on his forearms, and on my neck. His change was similar to Jaaski's, in that his senses seemed to have been sharpened, but no blind-sight that I know of. Jorlan had a lock of his hair turn blood-red, and he found himself able to speak, read, and write Draconic, which seemed to be quite the startling experience (there may be more, but again, little time to experiment).
 
After the corrupted dragon's death, the city had been saved, though fires still raged. Jaaski summoned her bonded winter wolf, whose name escapes me, and it set off to help quell the raging flames. The rest of us headed out to stop the fires and tend to the wounded, where we encountered Gartokkar of the Keepers of the Flame. While the Keepers were grateful that the city had been spared, they regretted the loss of their Wyrmsmith, saying that they had no idea how the city's forging would continue without him. Which was a problem for us, given that the whole reason we came to the city was that we were hoping for weapons and armor. Tanebi vowed that we would look for some sort of replacement in our travels, though they didn't seem all that comforted, and left with all the air of heading to a funeral, giving a vague assurance they'd talk to the Deepking about a trade agreement.
 
With the evidence in hand, we were able to prove that the cultist faction of the Council of Savants were behind the ritual to warp Themberchaud with Abyssal magic. With a little...clever interpretation of facts, I was also able to convince them that they'd also been the ones to end up with the missing red dragon egg, which they'd used in their ritual (though in all fairness, they absolutely would have if they'd managed to get the egg). Thus, Errde Blackskull was released and cleared of all charges.
 
The Steel Guard, unlike the Keepers, were astoundingly accommodating given their leader's release. Errde thanked us eagerly, and when she heard of our need for weapons and gear, she gave us some of the Steel Guard's own equipment (though she also vividly swore us to secrecy). With at least one problem solved, we took our gear with us towards the teleportation circle, and made preparations to return to Velkynvelve. I was so sure we were done with our trials for the day.
 
I should have realized my folly; the day wasn't even over yet.
 
In all the chaos of the fight, and its aftermath, I'd forgotten that Blinks had been right on top of Themberchaud as the dragon breathed his last. He entered the teleportation room with us, balancing an orb of magical energy on his nose. The orb looked like flames, and there was a gentle heat radiating from it as it rose up into the air. There was a rustling that came from Jaaski's bag of holding, and when she opened the bag to examine it, the orb flew inside. There was a rummaging, and then the bag disgorged the red dragon egg that was held within.
 
I swear I felt my heart stop when the egg, almost glowing with heat, began to rattle.
 
I hurried through the preparations for teleportation, and took us all to Velkynvelve. Hestan and Tanebi brought the shipment of supplies through, closely followed by Jaaski holding the dragon egg, and then the rest of us after her. Hestan and Tanebi took the supplies over to the armory while the rest of us rushed to the commander's quarters, trying our best to conceal the dragon egg that was in the middle of hatching. We slammed the door behind us, and the egg began to rattle more violently, cracks appearing in its surface. A tense few minutes later (during which I began recording this), Tanebi and Hestan joined us, trying to find out what was happening and what to do. It was at that moment a small snout burst through the egg, and I saw a newborn dragon for the first time.
 
I've recorded the rest elsewhere, but to finish this out, we now have an addition to our group. What the rest of the Wolf Pack will make of this I don't know, but for better or worse the dragon at least seems to defer to Jaaski. We're heading back to Gracklstugh tomorrow to see what we can collect from the dragon (I'd like the blood and draconis fundamentum for their potential in elemental energy, myself, though there's more that can be used). I have no idea what we're going to do about the dragon.
 
Though a small part of me is excited to find out.