MMC Summary: Session 11 - Dragon Hunt

Present Party: Keviks, Lupan, Nana, and Wren.

Setting: Dragon's Valley, in the kingdom of Midtia. Also, the surrounding mountains.

Upon the party's return to the material plane from Lupan's Trial of Spring and receiving an invitation to Wren's older brother's engagement party, they decided to regroup.

Wren went back to the last place the party knew Lupan to be: the noble estate at which they were staying, belonging to Prince Fang's grandmother. She spoke with him briefly. He was exhausted, and apologized for dragging the party into his past. Wren assured him that it was alright. She told him about the invitation, and claimed, "It seems as though now, I'll be dragging all of you into my past as well."

Lupan decided to stay in for the night and Wren went to meet up with the others.

The Mark of Spring

In the very back of his mind, he heard a voice: "Back then, you had your army - your tribe. You lost sight of them, and you denied their existence in blind rage. Now, you have your friends here. And you, you did not deny their existence. And you won. There is strength in numbers… and in friendship.”

His new tattoo - the Mark of Spring - glowed purple for just a moment.

~~~~~

"Spark" of Summer
Half-Tabaxi, age 18
(Official Art from "Twisted Wonderland")

Meanwhile, the party's friend Finch who'd delivered the invitation, informed Nana and Keviks that Fang was at the bar. Naturally, Nana led the charge to make sure he was okay, and Keviks came along for the drinks. They found the young prince in a booth at the back of the bar, talking to a familiar half-tabaxi: Spark of Summer. 

"Aren't they cute?"

Behind them, a familiar voice had piped up, but in an unfamiliar body. Quest had once again changed forms, from his tiefling disguise to a half-elven one now: with dark hair and heterochromia. He claimed to have been keeping an eye on the prince while the party was gone, using the excuse of being "a knight of the crown" when he was mortal.

Nana checked in with the two boys, and it seemed like everything was going alright. Fang gave her the name "Eon" for Quest's new form. Wren arrived and joined Keviks and Quest at the bar. Nana also met up with them, and asked for updates from Quest. She'd sent him to investigate the suspicious figure he'd seen the other night: a drow loudly bragging about shooting birds out of the sky. It had been the only lead they had about who shot down her crow familiar, Mond, in Kystad.

Quest did investigate, and found the following:

-  The drow was always referred to as "X" or "Xade" (with the X pronounced as a Z.)

- He had a bow. Quest didn't elaborate, but he claimed that the bow was the scariest thing about him. Even Quest - a demigod - was worried about facing him with that weapon.

- He had about 20 other people with him at the time. Quest managed to scare off many of them after spewing acid all over their hideout in the mountains to the south. That was the reason why he'd changed disguises.

- Of these twenty or so other people, three stood out the most:

- A white dragonborn in strange metal armor that had the Erdian crest emblazoned on her chestplate.

- A man who appeared human, but had black hair, pulled back out of his rather shrewd face. Every time he blinked, his eyes changed color. He had no weapons, and there was some kind of tattoo peeking out from under his shirt.

- There was one other individual who wore an Erdian crest on their hip, but Quest never saw their face.

The party collected Fang after an hour or so, and headed back to the estate. Fang had promised to see Spark again soon.

~~~~~

The next morning, before the others woke up, Nana made her way to Lupan's room. She gave him a gift: the blue flame in a jar that she wore around her neck. She'd affectionately named it "Cornelius," and he spoke words of encouragement when it was needed. She thought Lupan had more of a need for it at the moment.

This morning, the party was going on the blue dragon hunt that had been advertised by the Horizon Walkers guild. They'd been told that they could made quite a bit of money on that venture. Upon arriving at the guild, they were greeted by Guildmaster Ruz - the changeling they'd met last session - and a group of seven other rangers. Two of these rangers were dressed in black, and had kits that were very familiar to the party. They looked like the same equipment the bird assassin had been wearing.

The party made their way into the mountains to the north with this group, and upon arriving outside of a small cave, they received three healing potions each. They'd have to return the healing potions at the end of the hunt if they didn't use them. They were also meant to bring back any valuables they found, but any scales, teeth, claws, or horns they could salvage, they were allowed to keep. The four of them were sent after two wyrmlings while the eight rangers took care of the two adult dragons.

The party snuck their way through the cave, and found the two wyrmlings. They began their hunt, only to find that there were actually four wyrmlings, not two. Despite this change, the party managed fairly well. Lupan, thanks to a potion of growth from Nana, was enlarged. Kindred, Keviks's wolf companion, had been knocked unconscious, but then revived with a Healing Word from Wren. In the end, it was Wren who'd killed the last dragon, piercing it with a shot from her crossbow.

Once the dragons were killed, they harvested several pounds of scales and some of their horns and teeth. They also found something of a small hoard, where they collected what they could. They returned out into the mountains to wait for the others. They were met by one of the rangers in black, who told them that everything had gone fairly smoothly.

Nana asked this man, because of her familiarity with his outfit, if he knew a drow known as "Xade." This ranger actually did. The party discovered that there had been a drow named Xade in the Horizon Walkers guild, but he was kicked out. He didn't know the details, but what he'd done involved children and the fact that they found their intestines outside their bodies. He claimed to have had very few interactions with him, but that he was a complete psychopath.

The other rangers returned, with wagons of gold and dragon parts behind them. All of them went back to the guild hall, where they returned the few potions they hadn't used and gave all of the monetary items to be redistributed among the whole group. The only things that weren't given up were 110 gold pieces worth of gems, which Nana hid among their dragon parts they got to keep.

After everything was totaled up and the dragon parts were sold, the party had netted over 1,500 gold pieces each. Additionally, upon hearing about the two unaccounted-for wyrmlings, Guildmaster Ruz gave the party a few extra items for their troubles: four healing potions, 50 GP worth of gems, 10 +1 arrows, 10 +1 crossbow bolts, and a voucher for a free weapon enchantment, courtesy of the guild.

They checked in with Quest, who said that he was out with the prince again. Apparently the prince was on a picnic with Spark and being serenaded. He claimed that it was very cute.

Lupan and Nana ended the session with a quick conversation regarding their friendship after what happened with the Trial of Spring and Nana's gift of Cornelius. They hadn't gotten off to quite a great start, but they agreed to put any bad blood behind them. They would be traveling together. Nana was placing the safety of a young man she cared deeply about in Lupan's hands, just as much as everyone else's. Lupan's redemption quest was far from over, and it was clear to him that he'd need his friends now to get through it.

~~~~~

ART LINKS

https://twisted-wonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Leona_Kingscholar