The Plague Dragon
The God Squad has done it: they have tracked down the Plague Engine forming in the Empire of Zerua to the city of Kreniko, they have identified that Prince Mazaru Eramzir is sheltering the Plague Engine to use as a source of magical power, and they have built a rebellion to overthrow this trumped-up regional Governor.
Now, it is the dawn of the coup. Time to finally bring down the axe.
As the warriors of the coup entered the Palatial District, Makar Mesaba and Kipilu of Tezitkal readied themselves to move through the palace. They and Coco moved swiftly to join Arzet and Potha down in the crypts. The fighting they witnessed was brutal: the coup was moving quickly, but was taking heavy casualties moving through the fortified positions of the outer palace. The Gods considered joining the coup forces, but decided that they needed to focus their attention on their primary target - the palace fighting presented too many risks for individual party members to be injured prior to their big fight.
The party gathered in the crypts, readied their supplies, and carefully began exploring the lower crypt chamber. They focused their attention on the mural, and Makar considered the religious and political meanings of the piece (which depicts Makoi binding to Kemegi) while Potha used her tremorsense to detect mechanisms. Potha discovered that the mural was a well-protected door with an intricate mechanism, and that there were pipe-based traps underneath the area around the door. Makar figured out that the original way to open the door was to move air through the hands of Makoi in the mural (through very small holes in the wall), but that these were blocked by an Arcane Lock. At the same time, testing discovered that the pipes in the floor would blast extremely hot steam in large amounts when triggered, cooking anyone in the way. Arzet was able to undo the Arcane Lock and Makar opened the door by becoming a Windweaving dryad, allowing the party into the Prince's Path to the Engine.
In the next room, the party found a large chamber with a huge metal door and a lot of research reports and equipment. A single Half-Dryad woman was working here before the party arrived, and seemed shocked by their sudden entrance and Knock. The party convinced her that they were a group of fighters sent by the Prince to help with recent disturbances; the woman introduced herself as Iremla and explained that she was in charge of studying the Plague Engine beyond the door.
They party talked with Iremla to pick up information about the Engine and efforts to exploit it. They discovered that Iremla wasn't a Plague Warlock, and that Plague Warlocks had recently died when messing with the Engine. This Engine manifested as the Plague Dragon, a huge Dragomander with arcane powers and an association with airborne illness. Iremla and the warlocks had been working to place a kill-collar on the Plague Dragon so that the Prince could better coerce the creature and kill it quickly if necessary. This kill collar had a lock-based mechanism that, when the key was inserted and turned with force, would plunge a spike carrying an explosive charge into the dragon's brainstem - killing it instantly. Unfortunately, the Dragon had begun growing a neck guard of bone and fat to obscure the collar and prevent its use. That would need to be cut away before the key could be inserted at all.
Iremla forbade the party from setting off the collar and the party had to cajole the shape of the key from her through trickery. Arzet was then able to use Conjuration magic to duplicate the key. They had a tool to potentially kill this thing. Time to use it.
Beyond the iron door, the party relied on full-body suits from the previous chamber to keep themselves safe from the burning plague-infected air. The Dragon's lair was like a great set of lungs, bellowing corrupted air into the passages above. The lungs were full of hot muck, which was difficult terrain for all but Potha. The lung-lair was full of corpses washed down here by the hurricane, suspended in the muck and on the walls. Light seemed artificially reduced and dampened here. Potha summoned a wind elemental and animated both the Conjured Key and Losaro's Dagger to work on the collar as animated objects.
The party attempted to approach the dragon peacefully, calming it and trying to get close safely. Potha had some success, but couldn't convince it to let her break the neck guard. The Dragon revealed it could pick a 'Familiar' to channel its power and obey its commands - this was currently Prince Mazaru Eramzir, but Potha convinced it to try and bond her instead. Makar, using Detect Thoughts, picked up that it had a mental connection to both the Prince and Kasmir (with Kasmir taking away its horrific natural pain). Arzet covered the Dragon in grease as part of the ploy to "loosen the collar" to "remove it" and the party got into position as the Dragon began to insist it would magically bind Potha to its will.
Potha resisted the Dragon's will and stabbed at it with her magical rapier while her bird did great damage against it. Losaro's Dagger set the grease ablaze and the wind elemental primed its attack for any rising undead. Arzet followed this up with an empowered Magic Missile attack on the Neck Growth, almost instantly opening the Collar for use. It would take just a little more to open it entirely. Just after that, the Dragon's Lair began to move air and water to draw the party towards the dragon into easy-biting or easy-blasting range. Makar alone resisted this pull and launched a Distance-Enhanced Bestow Curse spell at the Dragon, which it resisted. So far, so good.
Then the Dragon released its breath weapon: a cone of powerful necrotic energy that instantly destroyed the wind elemental and Coco while leaving Kipilu and Makar injured (despite both avoiding the worst of it). Arzet was just too far to the right to be affected by the breath weapon, but was affected by the Dragon's bonus action: its activation of its Aura of Fear. Everyone else resisted, but Arzet's Attacks and Saves were put at deep disadvantage as the terror of true mortality struck them.
Kipilu then moved to Shatter the neck guard - almost but not quite destroying the collar itself in the process. With the collar vulnerable at last, Potha brought the key into the collar and detonated the charge. The dragon was instantly dealt terrible damage that should have killed it, but it remained standing. Potha struck at it, as did Arzet with magic missile - leaving it barely animated, a collection of fragmented body parts bound by loose tendons. Makar launched a chaos bolt at the dragon, but by bad luck the bolt did no harm to it. The dragon struck at Potha and Arzet, leaving them bloodied but standing. And now the dead were beginning to rise, shambling towards the party. Kipilu dashed forward and used Thunderwave on the dragon's shambling remains, killing it at last. It had proven durable beyond any reasonable belief, but it was dead. The larval Plague Engine had lived a life of rage and pain but finally faced a peaceful slumber.
The party took a breather after this terrible fight, and watched as a piece of the Dragon broke off and continued to move - turning into raw Static. This unbound power mentally called out to the party and asked for them to shape it. It imagined being a sword, but the party considered what else it could be: a dragon, a bag of holding? The power had been built to destroy and called most to a simple weapon. So the party shaped it into Unagi: a magical Fan that could launch projectiles of magical wind at enemies.
Unagi in hand, the group trudged their way out of the muck and back to the research room. There, they convinced Iremla to join their group after the Prince was dealt with. Iremla just wanted to create mechanical and scientific solutions to apocalyptic problems and so was perfectly happy to do so. The party also promised to share with her the secrets of the universe and to set up her 'dream blunt rotation' with Emesh, Orchid of Blue, and Darza.
After short resting and cleaning off a little, the party prepared themselves to rejoin the fray back in the palace. The Plague Engine was destroyed, primary objective complete. Time to deal with those that had harbored it.
Getting into Position
The Key
The Lair
The Dragon
Recovering
Components
Goals
QUEST:
- Kill or stop Prince Mazaru Eramzir
- Destroy the nascent Zeruan Plague Engine, to prevent a new Rot Plague Variant (Complete)
- Scout out the powers and weaknesses of the Nemeses
- Make connections and allies
- Marshal resources
Relations
Protagonists
Makar Mesaba: The Masked One reborn, from Etekamo. Divine Soul Sorcerer, Courtier Background
Potha Sarana: Halcyon reborn, from the Sarana Tribe of Loanua. Beastmaster Ranger, Outlander Background
Kipilu of Tezitkal: The Hidden One reborn, from Tezitkal. Glamour Bard, Acolyte Background.
Arzet Devadov: The Chimera reborn, from the village of Adov in the Deverkel Wastes. Conjuration Wizard, Sage Background.
Neutrals/Bystanders
Iremla Marazir: A sarcastic and insensitive natural scientist under the employment of Prince Mazaru Eramzir. Iremla is committed to the project of trying to chain and exploit the power of a Plague Engine, but isn't particularly invested in the Prince's political or divine ambitions. Iremla is someone who rejects magic and martial training as distractions that confuse the mind and hold back a person's scientific deduction - while her mentor attended the Darzan University, Iremla was denied entry due to her stalwart anti-wizardry stance. Now, she works for the Gods.
Adversaries
Prince Mazaru Eramzir: An old and bitter prince, trying to balance the Nemeses while claiming the throne of the Empire of Zerua.
Kasmir, the Rot: The Great Adversary, creator of the Rot Plague, center of the perpetual storm, and nemesis of Makar/The Masked One.
Parent Plot
Subplots
Related Characters
Related Locations
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