Lethe, Dawn, Macros, Mongo, Scion and Jym woke early and headed back into town. Along the way Mongo stopped by the tanner's shop and picked up his new suit of deathcut armor +1 crafted out of the hide of the mutant alligator. Scion also took some time this morning to introduce the party to her companion, Starbuck, a sleek blond wolf. Scion had abandoned the way of the Seeker and embraced the path of a Beastmaster.
The morning was chilly and dark clouds to the north promised a storm on the way. The guild had made plans the previous evening to meet Marvos in the Sleeping Dragon Taproom for breakfast and talk of another job. As the approached the agreed upon meeting place they spotted two shapes as they detached themselves from the clouds and flew toward the village. Sharp eyes made out the forms as a pair of warwing drakes with Dragonborn brigand riders armed with flails.
The few villagers out of doors were alert for attack and quickly cleared the street as they ran for cover. The riders drove their mounts into a dive toward the party seeing that they were the only ones left out in the open. Unseen behind a stack of empty crates by the side of the taproom, Rudiger watched with fascination as his favorite hero moved into action.
Jym gained some cover and prepared to fire at the first rider to get within range. When they did he let fly with a bolt, striking the first rider in the shoulder. Dawn followed up with a mid-air blast of power, engulfing both drakes and riders, the force of the blow knocking one of the riders out of his harness and onto the ground in the street. Jym commanded Mongo to go kill the one on the ground and the big Goliath charged forward to do just that.
Before anyone else could react the drakes buzzed low over-head. Jym was raked by claws, but shield blocked a clumsy flail swing from the Dragonborn brigand he had hit previously as they passed by. Macros and Lethe were caught in the middle of the street as the second riderless drake clawed each of them and continued past. Scion let fly with twin strike, bloodying the drake and rider that had struck Jym, forcing the beast to land briefly. Mongo bloodied the prone brigand who then stood up and smashed Mongo with his flail. The flail was coated with viscous substance, a contact poison of some sort, but the Goliath's great fortitude protected him from it's effects.
Everyone could see now that their opponents all bore signs of taint from chaos crystals. The drakes appeared crazed and diseased, with patches of scales missing and open sores on the flesh underneath. The drakes wore metal control collars, binding them to the will of their riders. The brigands appeared to be molting, scaly skin hanging from them in ribbons, unheard of for normal Dragonborn. The tabards they wore had the heraldry of the Kingdom of Dlanodcam, but defaced and painted over with a crude symbol of Zehir.
Macros moved to help Jym with the drake and brigand attacking him. Jym had cut the Dragonborn, but it still fought on. Lethe turned, drew his repeating crossbow in the same motion, and fired at the drake that had clawed him, tearing its wing and bringing it down. The enraged beast charged Lethe and bit him. Scion sent Starbuck bounding after the drake to flank it with Lethe. Mongo slew his brigand and then circled around to pin the drake against the tavern door. The tavern keeper opened the door, peeked out the see what all the commotion was about and was terrified to see a diseased drake snapping at him. He slammed and barred the door.
Jym slew the other brigand. Dawn, not wanting to kill the poor beasts, suggested that if they cut off the collars maybe they could calm the beasts down. Macros tried a slash at the collar, but the drake dodge out of reach. It looked as if it was about to bolt so Dawn leaped on back, but slipped partly off and held on to its shoulder. Macros quickly grabbed one of its legs as the creature took off and slowly gained altitude. Dawn tried to reach the collar to cut it off, but the beasts snapping teeth kept her dagger at bay. Jym called out to Macros and urged him to put the creature out of its misery. Macros, without considering the danger of being a couple dozen feet off the ground, gutted the creature with one of his swords. The dying drake plummeted with Dawn and Macros still hanging on. Macros hit the ground hard and the drake landed heavily on top of him. Dawn leaped away at the last minute and rolled with the fall, taking minimal damage.
Mongo cut the collar off of the cornered drake, which immediately became non-violent, but was still wary and wild. Dawn tethered the nervous and wounded creature with some rope and then decided to lead it into the woods where the other drakes and Snarl were waiting. Scion and Starbuck went with her. Mongo and Lethe took a moment to have a celebratory smoke around the side of the tavern while Macros and Jym tried to convince the tavern keeper to open up and let them in. Lethe discovered Rudiger in his hiding place and took a moment to continue the boy's education in knife fighting. Rudiger was excited about what he had just witnessed and told "Mr. Weef" about how his mom had to take a job at the tavern to pay the bills now that dad was gone and he was playing outside when the drakes came.
Eventually Macros and Jym got the tavern keeper to open up. He thanked them for dealing with the raiders, brought them a free breakfast and talked about how the attacks have been getting more and more frequent of late. Marvos was already in the common room finishing his own meal and invited the pair of Tieflings to join him. Marvos peppered the warlord and defender with questions about their discovery of the ancient ruins of Ustraternes. Their brief and clipped responses only served to pique his curiosity further. Jym in particular seemed anxious to get a move on as daylight was wasting and all the scholar's questions would be answered en-route and at the site.
When Mongo and Lethe finally joined them, Mongo told the scholar about their encounter with the ghost, Vrak, and asked him if there was anything he could do to help resolve the question of who was the true heir to the empire of Arkhosia. Marvos did not have anything on hand, but said if the guild could take him to the ruins he might be able to find something of use there. They left the tavern to help Marvos gather up some materials. including many scrolls and books and his hiking staff, before joining Scion and Dawn. Lethe decided to take Rudiger with him without talking to his mother first. He suited the boy up with a backpack and traveling gear and they set off together, hand in hand.
In the woods, Scion and Dawn had arrived to find the matron drake and her brood resting comfortably, but no sign of Snarl. As they drug the diseased warwing drake into the clearing the free drakes became agitated and circled around the intruder. Dawn asked if there was any way to save the tainted drake, but the matron drake only said that the creature needed to be destroyed. Two of her brood fell on the tainted drake, pulling at its damaged wings and the matron grabbed and bit down on its neck until it was dead, while "Bingo" leaped about roaring playfully at the edge of the clearing. When the display of primal justice was over Dawn asked about Snarl. She was told that Snarl had left before the sun was up, presumably to go hunting, but had not returned. Scion attempted to track the Gnoll into the woods with Starbuck's help, but found his trail hard to follow in the heavy underbrush. Starbuck was not able to pick up his scent and Dawn could not penetrate the dense canopy from above as she wheeled about on the matron drake's back.
Mongo, Lethe, Rudiger, Marvos, Macros, and Jym arrived at last. Marvos was impressed to see that the party had befriended a pack of free drakes and Rudiger was happy to see "Bingo" again and they chased each other around the clearing for awhile. The newcomers discussed the situation with Scion and Dawn and decided to leave a number of varying messages for Snarl to find if he returned. Mongo and Marvos mounted "Bingo". Scion rigged a papoose for Starbuck and then joined Dawn on the matron drake. Jym and Macros shared one of the other drakes. Lethe and Rudiger climbed on the remaining drake.
The storm clouds seen earlier were now directly overhead and as the party took flight, rain and wind began to harass them and making it hard to communicate between drakes. Dawn and the matron drake took the lead and the other drakes followed in formation. Mongo brought Marvos up to date as they flew. They flew over the woods and the bog and soon found themselves on the outskirts of the Ustraternes crash site. Nervously, the group passed over the perimeter of undead sentinels and penetrated the inner ring. Floating debris grew more and more dense as they grew closer to the largest source of chaotic magic. They banked and flew a scouting circuit around the entire site.
As they passed by they noticed many smoky fires among the rubble on the floor of the valley. They took this as a sign that a sizable force of Dragonborn warriors were encamped below and guarding the valley along with the undead sentinels. A ground assault of the citadel looked to be a dangerous option. Coming out of the stormy haze the group could see a growing mass of rubble and architecture floating hundreds of feet above the ground. The roughly spherical mass seemed to be slowly reforming itself, as they watched small chunks of moss covered stone drift into place. Marvos speculated that the center of the mass would contain the power source, most likely a large mass of chaos crystals. He warned that the chaos crystals would be highly volatile and if destroyed would bring the whole mass crashing down to earth again. As if to test his hypothesis, Marvos drew out one of the compasses and watched in surprise as it shattered, the small piece of crystal inside being ripped out and carried away by an invisible force.
The party kept their distance from the central mass because they could see other drake riders flitting about the reforming citadel. The matron drake warned Dawn that she and her brood would not be able to protect the party if attacked, that without harnesses and training it would be almost impossible to remain astride while fighting and taking evasive movement in mid-air.
Dawn asked the drake what she remembered about the citadel. Her memories were hazy, but she thought she could remember a magic circle on tower floating somewhere on the perimeter of the site where she was summoned, the collar was placed on her, and the ritual was performed, binding her will to that of her rider. Her increased intelligence and Bingo's lack of intelligence seemed to have been a side-effect of the spell. It appeared that the effects of the training spell were highly variable just as prolonged exposure to the chaos crystals affected creatures differently. The drake banked and led the party in search of the training circle.
They approached a mostly intact tower floating above a large chunk of floating debris. A series of smaller chunks floated between the broken tower and the landmass among a webbing of vines, making a network of steps leading from one to the other. The top of the tower had a large magic circle on it, with heavy chains set into the stone. Attached to the chains was a very large drake. A hulking red Dragonborn warlord wielding a great spear and a pair of Dragonborn archers stood guard on the tower top and spotted the approaching party. The warlord immediately mounted the giant drake and the snipers began unchaining the beast. Mongo recognized the warlord as his adopted brother, Ecamirg Dlanodcam. Lethe turned in his seat and spotted a group of Dragonborn riding drakes coming in from above and behind them.
Rather fight an air-to-air battle, the party opted to land on the landmass and dismount. As Ecamirg took to the air on his giant drake, the party landed and sent the drakes off to distract the incoming flying patrol. The drakes took off again and all but two of the patrolling riders gave chase. The guild prepared for a fight.
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