Sellswords of Punjar, Session 5: Shadow of the Umbra Drake

As the party rushed up the crumbling stairs they realized they were inside ruins of the ancient charnal tower that they had briefly seen set behind the manse of the Beggar-King. At that time its top was enshrouded in a dark swirling fog, which may have been the same shadows they were following now. They reached the ground level only to find that the floor was so rotten and broken that there was no clear path to the door on the other side of the tower. The party briefly considered how to get across. Aletha could have been able to fey step over, but there was no guarantee that the door would open or was unblocked on the other side. With the tower shuddering and threatening to collapse at any moment they decided to hurry up the stairs and hopefully find a way over to a nearby roof for safety. They continued up past a completely demolished second floor and finally onto the third and top floor of the tower.

The roof of the tower had long ago rotted away, exposing a network of rotting wooden beams like the ribs of some long dead beast. A massive cloud of shadow bats hung over head silhouetted against a rising full moon. The air held a wintry chill to it and bits of ash from the fires below carried up in the updraft were drifting down like snowflakes all around them. As the party watched, the swarm of shadow bats reformed themselves into the shape of a dragon who glowed and flared from the inside like an ember. Once the dragon was fully formed it landed on the edge of the ruined tower wall and turned its malevolent gaze on the adventurers.

Aletha spotted a solid looking rooftop through a break in the west wall of the tower. She quickly ran to the edge and easily fey stepped across the large gap, leaving her companions the find their own way across. Vismund determined this was the perfect opportunity to use his new Arcane Springboard power, but he needed time to prepare it. Jym, Mina and Regnor moved into position near the break in the wall to wait for Vismund to complete the spell. The umbra drake, seeing that his prey was trying to escape, drew in a long breath and exhaled a cloud of thick cold shadows that enveloped the top of the tower and everyone still standing there. The shadows temporarily blinded Jym and Regnor, but Mina and Vismund were able to find some cover amongst the rubble and avoided the worst of the attack.

Vismund completed his spell and called a magical springboard into existence at the edge of the tower. The tower began to shudder underneath him, giving warning of its immanent collapse. Mina shoved the blinded Jym and Regnor towards the springboard and somehow they were able to launch themselves across the gap to relative safety. Mina and Vismund quickly followed them, landing on the nearby roof just as the tower gave a final groan and crumbled behind them. The shadow dragon lifted off into the air as the tower fell, and then came to rest on the roof next to the party, with its jaws gnashing and its tail slashing about them. Regnor was struck prone by the tail and remained blinded for most of the battle. He did however make good use of his reaping strike he swung out blindly at the dragon, cutting and slicing it, wearing it down.

Aletha had once again backed up to a safe range away from the dragon and unleashed bolt after bolt of fey magic at the beast, but luck was not on her side this night as many of them passed harmlessly by it. Jym had used up most of his power for the day but still managed to rally the troops and move them into advantageous positions flanking the dragon. The umbra drake focused much of its attention on the fighter until it was certain he was no longer a threat as Regnor lay helplessly on the roof, blinded, weakened, and struggling to lift his sword against the onslaught of attacks. Meanwhile Mina had been putting her combat advantage to great use, piling on the damage with sneak attack after sneak attack. Finally the dragon became aware of the very real threat the little teifling rogue presented and aimed a blast of shadow breath at her and Vismund. Mina was able to duck the attack but Vismund took the full force of it.

At last Aletha was able to land an attack on the dragon, striking it with witchfire, thereby reducing its combat effectiveness, which granted her companions a reprieve from its attacks. They took full advantage of the situation. Regnor finally shook off the last of his debilitating effects and struck a mighty blow to the beast with his greatsword. Jym plunged his bastard sword deeply into its side. Mina slash viciously at its exposed flank with her short sword. Vismund hammered mercilessly at its leg with his warhammer. Under the onslaught the beast gave a final angered cry of defeat before tumbling off the roof towards the street below. Before it struck the ground the shadows that made up its form burst apart and flew off in all directions and faded away in the darkness.

The party sat dumbfounded and exhausted together on the rooftops wondering if it was really finally over. They went over the dangerous and bizarre events of the past couple nights spent in the slums in their heads and briefly discussed what to do now. From all appearances they had completely wiped out the Beggar-King and his followers, putting an end to the danger his reckless actions had threatened the city with. The umbra drake would have eventually broken free of the Beggar-King's control. If the adventurers had not been there it would have wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting populous of Punjar. Through their actions the party had averted catastrophe. This realization earned the party enough experience to gain another level.

Later, back at the Horny Hippogriff Tavern, they discussed their future plans as they divided up the treasure. Aletha planned to take her trophy, one of the horns of Mother Zeb'Oltha, back to "The Sisters" and claim her reward. When she did they thanked her and gave her a scroll, which had a map drawn upon it. They told her it was a map to a dragon's treasure horde. They did not tell her whether the dragon still lived or what guarded it now. Mina was anxious to take the Beggar-King's head back to his chief rival "The Master of Smoke" to claim her prize money and gain entrance to the prestigious thieves guild of Punjar. Jym would follow up with the town constabulary and claim his reward for rescuing the kidnapped Baroness, and maybe even do a little blackmailing of the Baron to boot, since all evidence pointed to him as being the reason she disappeared in the first place. Regnor would take the recovered trinket back to his employer and see what new opportunities would come his way. Vismund had many plans involving distributing his cursed rat treasure to his enemies and beggars alike, selling his recovered goods for a quick profit and then relocating as soon as possible, and also looking up that dwarven tinker they'd rescued and seeing if there was a mutually beneficial business arrangement they could come to.

They parted company as they had started, not quite friends yet not quite enemies. In the city of thieves friends can be a liability, but you can't afford to make new enemies either. Who's to know in what circumstances they may cross paths again, but for now they all had better places to be. And with that they said their final good-byes and went their separate ways, disappearing into the darkened back-alleys and by-ways of the Old Town district of Punjar.