Hathun, Second-Week, Fifth-Day, The Now-Year
The PCs search the cloudy, acidic cavern high and low. Slakethirst, Mammae Boe and Un'krug head to the mouth of the lair to question their dragonborn prisoner about what it was that they just dealt with. Greech, meanwhile, has returned after guiding the dragonborn to the lower plateau and the waterfall they can climb to escape back down the Ayrie. He transforms into a baboon, trying to scale the cliff, and falling half to his death. Mamma Boe then spies him and helps him out. After probing around the acid-filled cavern, Vraal and Un'Krug wander off into a neighboring corridor, while Yukkbutt begins to goad and defile the sleeping, ancient dragon they see on one side of the cavern. The cleric and barbarian find Chief Wralasar in the neighboring chamber, minus a leg and an arm that were removed from him, the wounds cauterized. More PCs drift into this chamber, and they all search the area and find some curiosities strewn about the refuse that has piled up there. Flearikz jumps from cage to cage near the ceiling, but finds no more surviving prisoners. Borracho notices something a little strange, one of the sleeping ancient's eyes opening, but doesn't pay it much heed.
The PCs decide to go rest their wounds in the monastery ruins below the cavern, but SlakeThirst, Yukkbutt and Greech remain behind. The dragonborn transforms into a tyrannosaurus rex to start chewing out his slain father's heart, while Yukkbutt watches on with glee. In the midst of the carnage, both the polymorphed SlakeThirst and Greech notice both of the sleeping ancient's eyes opened, and Greech notices a reflection that is not his own before the eyes shut again, possibly some automatic sleep response. The druid also hears a mechanical grinding. The trio then heads down to the ruins below to inform the others of what they have seen. Mamma Boe flies off to nearby Misthome, and tells them she'll be at her home there if they need a place to gather their thoughts. Vraal reminds the group that they have a potential war with the ogres on their hands, and need to get back on the brutes' tracks across the Plateau. The group then rests the nights, the only disturbance being a massive avian that glides over the ruins but does not appear to be another dragon.
Hathun, Second-Week, Sixth-Day, The Now-Year
After waking, Borrach and Kymyl decide to dimension door back up to the lair briefly to check on the sleeping dragon once more, and investigate the odd occurrence with its eyes. Sure enough, after a brief wait, they notice the strange reflections as the eyes flitter open once more. Kymyl begins to hear some strange clicking and squealing noises from inside the cave, and examines it to find a hatch on one of the dragon's jaws...it turns out that this is not in fact Saurvax, but some sort of false, detailed proxy for the legendary creature. Once he and Borracho get through the hatch, they are stunned to find a strange corridor filled with odd, shining structures and devices similar to others the PCs have come across in the past couple months. They also find four of the weird 'reflections', one of which attacks them with a ray weapon while the others retreat to a ledge on the back of the mountain. The pair are able to drive them off, knocking the shooter unconscious. Greech, meanwhile, thinks they've been gone too long and climbs back up to the cave in a spider form.
After defeating the strange humanoid, Borracho takes it and dimension doors back to the ruins below, where the PCs bind, blindfold and mute it. Kymyl follows the rest to the ledge above, but they seem to have disappeared...for a moment, he notes a strange hum, his hairs standing on end, and then a displacement of the light. A moment later, the sun seems to disappear, replaced by blue sky, only for an instant, and then returns. Greech surprises the monk later, before turning back into half-elf form, and then SlakeThirst and Yukkbutt come up to explore what Borracho has found. Below, Vraal begins to interrogate the strange creature, using tongues. It claims to be a deformed orphan from one of the Ten-Tribes, and would prefer death to captivity. It is also quite snarky and condescending to the PCs, calling them all savages. It claims that it and its friends were just wandering around when they themselves find the strange cavern, and then witnessed the fight outside the false-dragon. Un'Krug recognizes the thing as looking just like the enigmatic bounty hunter Diedeath the Mad which was pursuing Cynjak some weeks ago, only dressed much differently. Vraal also recognizes that it looks like the being on one of the giant engraved panels down in the City of the Carvers.
After searching and looting what weird charts and items they can from the glimmering corridor, the PCs above shatter some of the tubes and cylinders and return to the monastery. They all decide they will go to Misthome and seek answers from some of the scholars there about this strange turn of events.
PCs: Borracho, Flearikz, Greech, Kymyl, SlakeThirst, Un'Krug, Vraal, Yukkbutt, Za'ku
XP Rewarded: 2700
Inspiration: --
Renown: All PCs maxed out at 15 with Place-of-Scales.
