The midmorning sun was beat pleasantly on the traveling gnome as he sat down by his campfire to eat the waterfowl he had caught that morning by the nearby stream. Birds sang overhead, and insects droned about the clearing.
Taking the bird off the spit, the gnome chewed thoughtfully on it for a moment, before speaking to the trees. "You can come out, it's ok I've seen your kind before and I am no threat to you surely."
From a nearby tree a blue scaled dragonborn wearing long robes and a pointed hat emerged. "I would be glad to share your fire, for I am newly come to this world from another and it is cold in the between-realms," they said.
"Certainly, although I doubt I have enough food for both of us. I wasn't expecting company this morning."
"I should not worry such things friend, I merely desire some warmth and a place to rest."
The gnome eyed the dragonborn warily, but they seemed to be telling the truth. "Alright, just don't say I didn't warn you when you try to eat me," he said, jokingly.
The dragonborn gave him a quizzical look, but sat down and heaved a grateful sigh. "It has been a long and tiring journey, but I have escaped that hellish plane on which I was trapped. Where am I, might I ask? You do not seem perturbed by my tales of extraplanar travel."
"You're in the High Forest, we're about a week's travel out from Waterdeep, not that any self-respecting Forest Gnome would be seen on the road to that city. We like it here in the calm and quiet woodlands."
"Back on Faerun then? But I promised Sadun I would help her return as well. I suppose I must continue my travels," the dragonborn mused.
"Sadun a friend of yours I take it?" the gnome asked.
"Yes, one of the few I would consider genuine friends," the dragonborn replied.
"So you'll be going to another world again soon?"
"Yes, I hope if I use these scales I collected from Sadun the last time we met, I may be able to aim my teleportation spell to her vicinity."
"That sounds fun. I've always wanted to see other worlds. Could I come with you?"
"I suppose there would be no harm," the dragonborn considered. "In fact, it would be a good way for me to test my ability to transport others with me. Give me a few hours to rest, and another few hours to prepare the ritual, and we shall see where we end up. If that suits you."
"Would I be able to come back and tell my family about it?"
"That would be my ultimate aim, yes. I seek to find my friend, and then return with her here. You would be welcome along."
"Great! I'll see if I can find another bird to roast up for you while you warm up. My name's Arnick, by the way. If we're to be traveling to other worlds together, we should probably get to know each other."
The dragonborn smiled. "Yes, I suppose that would be suitable. I am Vivi. It is a pleasure to meet one as adventurous as you Arnick. After I retrieve my friend, maybe you can help me with my long held dream, and we can touch the very stars themselves."
Arnick whistled happily to himself as he set off, leaving Vivi in a light doze by the fire. A real adventure! It sounded like a lot of fun. And maybe he would find out what happened to his lost and reckless sister, Elle, while he was about it. The day was certainly looking up.
------------------------------
While the group argued about the dead kobold, Fei looked through the kobold's pouch. Inside she found a letter penned in a neat hand, folded inside a note. The note read: "Give this letter to the adventurers."
The letter read: "I am sorry to have been rude to you at my tower the other day. Please accept this pass-stone which will allow you to visit me again should you wish. I appreciated your trading those valuable things with me. -The Wizard of the Tower."
Fei read the letter twice, looked at the arguing group, and shrugged. She dug a quick hole in the dirt, dropped the letter into the hole, and buried it. Then, digging deeper into the kobold's pack, she found a stone. She walked over to where Sadun was sitting quietly.
"Sadun, I found this in the kobold's pack. It may be useful," Fei said, handing the stone over to the dragonborn.
"Oh, thank you Fei," Sadun said, looking up. The lines beneath her eyes were still moist with tears. "Do you know what it is?"
"No, but who knows when it may come in handy? I was thinking about a way to get those weapons out of the lake," the druid said, changing the topic. "I have access to a spell that might allow me to briefly befriend the lake dragon. At least long enough to retrieve some of the items. Of course, I can only try it once, and the dragon may yet resist its effects. Do you think it's worth trying?"
Sadun considered the idea. "If it lets us get the power we need to face the beholders, it is worth doing," she said. "Will you know if your spell works?"
"Yes, I should be able to tell as soon as I cast it," Fei said.
"And if it doesn't work, we can grab you and flee. The dragon seems mostly territorial about the lake. I think it is worth a try," Sadun said. "Once those three calm down, anyway," she indicated Balazar, Cassian and Pip Squeak.
"I shall raise the matter once Talna has been able to have her time then," Fei said. "But I am glad to have your approval of the idea. Sometimes it is good to speak these ideas out loud."
----------------------
In the clearing, Balazar, Cassian and Pip Squeak were finally winding down their argument.
"Fine! I'm going to go over here and drink myself into a coma then," Balazar shouted at Pip. "Otherwise I'm too tempted to finish the murder I had intended that kobold for on you, and for some reason Sadun and Talna look down on murdering members of the group."
"I was just trying to help! I don't like people arguing!" Pip said. "But good, I wanted to look for any extra interesting things in the flower crater over there."
"Just stay away from me," Cassian said. "I'm going to build a suitable cairn for our fallen friend, and then I need a nap."
While the half-orc stacked rocks on top of each other in the middle of the field of flowers Fei had grown and then stripped down to his metal gauntlets and curled around the memorial, Pip began a painstaking search of the vicinity for any pieces of interesting metal or leftover void with which he could build his inventions. After a few minutes of scavenging, he heard an odd noise and looked up. About ten feet above him, a strange black orb was forming.
"Uh oh," the ratfllk thought. "I'm too close for this to come back again." But instead of drawing things into itself, this void seemed to be attempting to expel something. A slender wooden stick began to poke through the void. "Uh, Cass?" Pip called out. "You may want to come look at this."
"Why are you bothering me?" Cassian grumbled, getting up from his nap.
"Because Balazar is in a drunken stupor and wants to kill me, and you're closer than the others."
Seeing the logic in this, Cassian walks over. "What do you want?"
"There's another void up there, look." Cassian's gaze followed Pip's pointing digit. "But something is coming out. Lift me up so I can see what it is!" the ratfolk enthused.
With a sigh, Cassian lifted Pip up to the void. Pip grasped the stick emerging, and pulled hard, and yelped with surprised when a blue-scaled dragonborn and a gnome came tumbling out on top of him. The motion overbalanced Cassian, who fell back, and all four landed in a sprawl on the ground. The gnome sat up and immediately pulled a notebook from his bag and began writing in it.
Pip sat up, still keeping a paw on what was now apparently Vivi's staff, and looked at the gnome as the hole in the sky closed. "Oh no, not another one," he muttered.
"Hey! Vivi!" Balazar called towards the dragonborn from where he was drinking. "Good to see you again! Kill that rat for me, would you?"
"I should have known," Vivi said, dusting themself off with one hand while holding their staff tightly with the other. "Where there's trouble, there is Balazar. Give me back my staff rat."
"No, it's my stick! I found it! You were just on the other end of it," Pip said.
"If you two fight my friend Vivi there will be hells to pay!" Balazar shouted towards the clearing, as Pip and Vivi engaged in a tug of war over the staff. Fed up with Pip's antics, Vivi sent a shot of Electricity buzzing through the air near the ratfolk's head, causing his fur to stand on end, and Pip finally let go.
The gnome stood up, still writing in his book. "Greetings strangers, I see at least one of you knows my companion Vivi," he said. "I am Arnick, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!"
"Hi gnome. I knew another one like you," Balazar said, walking over. "I hope you don't die like she did."
"What?" Arnick asked, taken aback.
Fei, Talna and Sadun arrived on the scene at that moment, having taken notice of the new arrivals.
"Vivi!" Sadun and Talna called out.
"Sadun, it is good to see you," Vivi said. "Greetings Talna, I am glad you are well."
Fei walked up to Arnick and began sniffing the gnome's head. Arnick, shrugging, sniffed the druid in return.
"This one seems to be like Elle," Fei said, standing back.
"Elle was my younger sister! Do you know her?" Arnick said, excitedly. "I was hoping for word about her, but I didn't dream I would get it from Vivi's friends."
Talna turned around and walked away quietly, and returned to her meditation. Cassian looked around sadly, a single tear rolling down his cheek.
"Arnick, I'm afraid we have bad news," Sadun began. "Your sister traveled with us."
"That's not bad news," Arnick said.
"She was... a good friend," Sadun said. "But, mere hours ago, she met her end. She died, nobly sacrificing her life to save us from a terrible void that would have engulfed the world."
"That doesn't sound like my sister," Arnick said, hesitantly.
"She also did it to rid this world of an old god," Sadun said.
"They're beings from before time, who used to have the power of gods and now seek vengeance against those who no longer worship them as they attempt to return to their old stations," Cassian said softly. "Elle had managed to become attached to one of them."
"Oh, that sounds more like my sister," Arnick said. "She always was reckless."
"She was sucked into the void, and this is all we have left of her," Sadun explained, handing the strange stone to the gnome.
"Yes, I recognize the bow, that was hers alright. I never placed her as the dagger type though. She must have grown in her time away from home."
"I made a cairn for her, if you would like to pay your respects," Cassian said.
"Yes, I think I would like that, thank you," Arnick said sadly. He handed the stone back to Sadun. "Please keep this for now. It seems like you were the closest with my sister, so I think she would have liked for you to look after it."
"We might be able to bring her back!" Pip said. "I could make her brand new from that stone, once Talna gets done talking to her god."
Arnick ignored the ratfolk and walked over to sit by the cairn. Pip, oblivious, followed and talked at Arnick for the next twenty minutes while the gnome mourned quietly.
"This area is strange, the magical energy levels are very low," Vivi said, walking over to the group after investigating the crater.
"Yes, the void Elle closed was drawing all the magic into it," Cassian explained, and proceeded to describe the entire history of Max's arm and the void orb.
"Fascinating," Vivi said. "If only I had the chance to study this void in action. I wonder where it led to?"
"Nowhere good, I'm sure," Cassian muttered.
"By the way, do half-orcs where you come from always wander around nude?" Vivi asked. "I'm just curious."
"Oh, no this is how I sleep, and your arrival interrupted my nap. But I do wear these gauntlets."
--------------------------
Talna rose from her meditation, feeling calmer in the middle of her storm of grief. Quietly, while the others talked in the clearing behind her, she put together a series of stones in the shape of a sacred altar. She placed feathers on the altar in the pattern of a dove, and cut her palm to bleed on the altar, an offering of suffering for Naralis Analor. Then, expending some of her magical energy, she turned her eyes up and prayed for his intervention.
"Please, I need answers in this time of suffering, I beseech you to allow me some questions."
As she finished speaking, a shimmering form appeared before her. "Ask, servant of mine, and I shall answer."
"Tell me, is our fiend Elle's soul in the stone Sadun holds?"
"Yes," the form said. "And no."
"Then, is it the spirit of the old one that inhabits the stone?"
The form paused, and said again "Yes, and then again, no. The soul in that stone is a soul you have not yet met."
"Have Elle and the old one somehow melded together?" Talna asked.
"Yes, and no," the form said. "Do you have any further questions?"
"Would it be safe to let whatever is in there out?"
"Maybe. It is hard to know for sure."
"Can we separate two souls that have melded?"
"Yes, but not as you are now," the form said, sadly.
"I have no more questions then," Talna said, with a sigh. The form departed.
---------------------
"Do you have news?" Sadun asked, as Talna rejoined the group.
"Yes, but it is not good," Talna said. "Pip, it would not be safe to release the soul in the stone. It's some sort of melding of Elle and the old one, and possibly something new altogether. It should be possible to separate their souls, but none of us are strong enough to do that now. It will require a Great Magic to perform such a feat."
"So my sister might come back eventually?" Arnick asked.
"Yes, but not now. It is too dangerous to risk letting the old one out, they are extremely powerful, and full of anger. Maybe someday," Talna said, a little wistfully. "I liked Elle in spite of herself."
"The wizard has great power, maybe we can talk to him about it?" Pip suggested.
"Yeah, and then I could kill him and all the kobolds in his tower, finally scratch my killing spree itch," Balazar said.
"Well, the wizard was not the most friendly last time," Sadun said. "And we can't get past his barriers without a kobold guide, but he was willing to trade so perhaps if we could find something worth trading it would be worth a shot."
"He may also have more information on the lake dragon," Talna said thoughtfully.
"I have a very powerful spell in my spell book," Vivi offered. "I found it in the last plane we visited. It is too much for me to attempt it, but maybe this wizard you speak of would be willing to trade information for access to the spell. How far away is this wizard?"
"He lives in that tower you can see above the trees," Pip said, pointing south. "I could also trade him one of my gadgets! I create things," the ratfolk said proudly.
"What sort of things?" Vivi asked, in spite of themself.
"Oh, like this light maker!" Pip said, excitedly. He drew a globe from his cloak. "Watch!"
"Pip, no!" Talna shouted, but too late. The ratfolk smashed the globe on the ground, releasing a blinding flash of light. Vivi and Arnick, unprepared, shouted in surprise and pain and sat down hard, rubbing their eyes. The rest of the group, having been better prepared from the last time the ratfolk had pulled this particular shenanigan, instinctively covered their eyes.
"Bad rat!" Talna said. "Don't do that again unless I tell you or you warn us first!"
"But it's so cool! And I'm sure it will help us against the eye monsters."
"How many more of those do you have?" Sadun asked, as she stood guard over the blinded Vivi and Arnick.
"Just one more! But I can make them, given the opportunity," Pip explained.
"Perhaps it would be best if you stopped using them to blind your allies then," Cassian suggested, bopping the ratfolk on the head.
"I hadn't thought of that," Pip said. "I just like showing off."
"If we are heading back to the wizard's tower, mayhap we could attempt my plan to get the enchanted weapons from the lake without fighting the dragon," Fei said.
"What plan is this?" Talna asked.
"Oh, I mentioned it to Sadun. I have a spell that may make the monster friendly to me and allow us to harvest the weapons in peace. I only have one chance though. I thought that since the lake is on our way to the wizard it might be worth trying."
"I have some spells that could expedite your escape if things go poorly," Vivi said.
"I will have to be underwater to attempt the spell I suspect, will that affect your plans?"
"Oh, yeah I have to be able to see you, and I see no reason to risk my life here," Vivi said.
"I think it is worth a try, if it comes to the worst we can always run away. We've gotten skilled at retreat," Sadun said.
"Against my better judgment, alright. Let's try this plan of yours," Talna said.
-----------------------
The group approached the lakeshore in silence, either out of excitement about the plan, interest in seeing something new, or fear of what the dragon could do should it take issue with their presence. Leaving the others at the treelike, Fei walked to the shore and poked her head under the water's surface.
The lake was deep, deeper than Fei had anticipated, but there, at the edge of what she could see before the water's depths shrouded the bottom in mystery, was the dragon. It lay still, eyes closed, and seemed to be asleep.
As quietly as she could, Fei slipped under the water and swam closer to the slumbering creature. When she felt she was close enough, she wove the incantation for her spell. A blue light suffused the sleeping dragon, and then dispersed, but to Fez's eye she could see that the blue light remained around the dragon's eyes. The spell seemed to have worked.
Fei swan to the surface, gave a thumbs up signal to the rest of the group, and dived back under the water, heading towards the bottom of the lake.
"Oh good! I want to go see too," Pip said, running up and jumping into the lake.
"This is a pretty lake," Arnick said. "I think I'll draw it for my journal." The gnome sat at the shoreline and began writing in his notebook again.
"Just in case Fei is wrong, I'm staying back here," Balazar said, "I don't think I could take this thing on by myself from what I saw of it earlier."
Underneath the water, the dragon opened one eye, and looked at Fei. Judging her to be a friend, it turned its gaze up to the splash of Pip entering the lake, and rose to the surface. Ignoring Pip, it surfaced and stared down at a fascinated Arnick.
"Oh hells," Sadun muttered from the treeline. She darted forward to try and reuse the gnome. As she emerged from the trees however, the dragon turned its gave to the dragonborn, and its mouth began to fill with electricity. At the threat display, Sadun stopped her charge, and held up her hands.
"Sorry," she said in draconic, slowly backing away, "I didn't mean to startle you."
The dragon did not seem to understand Sadun's words. Vivi, taking advantage of the distraction, chanted a short range teleportation spell, appeared next to a startled Arnick, grabbed the gnome, and teleported back into the trees, just in time to avoid the large ball of electricity that the dragon breathed onto the spot the gnome had been on.
Seeing Arnick safely away, Sadun continued backing away, as the dragon returned its gaze to her. As she slipped into the cover of the trees, the dragon seemed satisfied, and dove back underwater.
As Sadun breathed a sigh of relief, Cassian shouted from further down the shore "Pip and Fei are still in there, they could be in danger!" The half-orc ran from the treelike to the shore and began hurling rocks into the lake. "I'll distract it while they get the weapons. I don't want them left alone with that thing!"
"Is that a good idea?" Talna wondered to herself. "We were hoping not to have to fight here." It was too late, however, as Cassian had started running around the lake, tossing rocks as he went.
-------------------------
Meanwhile, underwater, Pip Squeak was swimming as fast as he could to keep up with Fei. The dragon had ignored him earlier, but he didn't want to take any chances. Ahead of him, he could see the druid pause at an odd looking line in the water. As he drew closer, he saw what had caused Fei to hesitate: at the bottom of the lake was a large pocket of air, trapped in a straight sided crater beneath the water. Fei motioned to Pip to follow her, and swam to the cliffside. Seeing the druid finding enough foot and hand holds to scale the descent, Pip followed suit. With a welcome gasp he found himself breathing air again.
There was a stink of rust in the crater, emanating from piles of metal all around. Pip squatted to examine the nearest pile. "They're all rusted, but some of these weapons do seem to have magical energy according to my goggles," he informed Fei.
"Good," Fei said. "Let's try to find some that our companions can use." She began picking through the piles, pulling out swords and hammers and showing them to Pip for magical detection.
While she worked, Pip began grabbing as much scrap as he could find. "This all looks useful," he muttered to himself in glee. "Think of what I could make with this! And this! And this!"
As they worked, Fei kept a surreptitious eye on the lake above. At one point, she saw the dragon peering in on them with disinterest, but it disappeared again soon after.
"Odd," she thought, "I wonder why it isn't watching us more closely."
-------------------------
"Hey you big beastie! Come on out and face me!" Cassian shouted again, hurling another rock into the water. The dragon obliged him, raising its serpentine head above the water and looking at him with something between quizzical confusion and vexed irritation.
"Uh, should we help him?" Arnick asked. Before anyone could stop him, the gnome had walked out of the treeline, and began shouting at the dragon in several languages, each an attempt at "We mean you no harm!" When Arnick finally tried common, the dragon turned to look at him. At that moment, Cassian hit the dragon with another thrown rock, immediately drawing its attention back to him.
"Hells, he's too far away," Arnick said. "I think it understands common, but Cass is too far away to hear me!" Arnick shouted back to the trees.
-----------------------
On the other side of the lake, Cassian laughed as he dodged the dragon's lightning. "What were we worried about? This isn't so bad!" he shouted. He landed and spun around, looking for another rock to throw, and looked up just as the dragon let loose another ball of electricity. "Oof!" Cassian grunted, taking the brunt of the attack. "Well, that hurts," he muttered, his skin sizzling. The dragon began to charge another attack.
---------------------
"This is actually fascinating," Arnick said, sitting down. "The dragon seems to charge its breath attack through those crystals on its back." He began sketching in his notebook again, as Talna, Sadun and Vivi approached.
"What is Cass doing?" Talna asked, exasperated.
"It looks like he's getting shocked," Vivi said, observing the scene calmly.
"We should probably try to help him, shouldn't we?" Sadun asked.
"Well, Balazar seems to be sneaking over there for that purpose. It would probably be better if we didn't leave him to his own devices," Talna said.
The group began to run around the lake towards the action.
-----------------------
"Alright," Cassian said, standing up, "Let's not get hit by that again." He looked up at the dragon just as it breathed a third ball of lightning, and jumped out of the way. "Ha! You missed!" he shouted, as the dragon let fly with another ball immediately following. Cassian's muscled spasmed as the electricity burned through him. "Argh! I think it's time to go," he said, turning and sprinting for the trees.
Behind him, the dragon, thoroughly incensed now, heaved itself out of the lake on its two limbs and pulled itself forward, dragging its serpentine back half after it as it chased the fleeing half-orc. The dragon caught itself on its limbs and pulled itself into a charge, crashing through the trees.
As the dragon slid to a stop mere feet from the running figure of Cassian, Balazar exploded from the trees next to it, his ghost sword and short sword raised. The dragonborn slid beneath the dragon, dragging his blades along its scales in a nasty cut. Or it would have been nasty, had the both blades not been repelled by the strength of the creature's scales.
"I think the crystals on its back may be a weak point!" Arnick shouted to the group as he approached the dragon and fired an arrow from his longbow. The arrow struck a crystal, which cracked and became dimmer than the other seven surrounding it on the dragon's back.
"Good idea," Vivi said, hurling a stream of magical missiles into the crystals, causing one to shatter and cracking another.
"Someone has to get to Cassian, he looks like he's about to collapse," Sadun shouted, and broke into a sprint.
The dragon pulled itself up to its full height and smashed a claw into Cassian, knocking the half-orc unconscious. It turned, positioning itself over Cassian's still form and facing the oncoming adventurers.
Arnick shot again, cracking a third crystal, and shattering the one Vivi had cracked, as Vivi flung more magic missiles.
"Get me on its back V!" Balazar shouted. "I could get all of those crystals in my fire breath!"
"Tempting!" Vivi called back. "Even if just to see how that worked."
"Cassian, wake up!" Talna cried out, putting healing energies into her words. Cassian, who had regained consciousness, felt his stamina returning, and he risked glancing at the towering dragon above him.
"How do we get out of this one?" he said quietly to himself.
-----------------------
Meanwhile, in the calm of the air bubble beneath the lake, Fei stood up, satisfied. "I've found swords, and shields, and a hammer and even a bow," she said happily. "This should help us actually fight the beholders. Pip? Are you done?"
The ratfolk staggered over, weighed down by all the scrap metal he had picked up. "I suppose we can go... there's just so much great stuff here! Can we come back?"
"Sure Pip, you can come back whenever you want to swim past the dragon again. Look, I think we're running out of time on my charm spell, so I'm going to shapeshift into a lizard form so we can climb and swim out of here faster. Just hold onto me when I do."
"Ok," Pip said. Fei picked up the magical items she had found and held them close to her, and the changed her form. The weapons melded with her body as she became a giant iguana. Pip grabbed a hold of one of her spines and she darted up the wall and into the water.
As soon as Pip touched the water above, he felt a massive jolt of electricity channeled through the scrap metal he was holding. The surge knocked the ratfolk unconscious, and he fell back off of Fei.
"Dead rivers," Fei cursed in her head, turning to swim back. She managed to snag the ratfllk's cloak before he fell into the air bubble again, and dragged him to the surface. The scrap metal Pip had been holding onto fell away to the lakebed again.
Emerging onto dry land again, Fei looked around. "Where is everyone?" she wondered. "Where is the dragon?" Turning to survey the area, she saw a trail of broken trees. With a lizard sigh, she returned to human form, and placed Pip's unconscious form safely in the trees before sprinting towards the trail of destruction.
------------------------
"Vivi, get me up there now!" Balazar shouted in his most authoritative voice. Vivi found themself teleporting to the dragon, grabbing Balazar, and teleporting with him to the dragon's back. Pleased, Balazar turned and let loose a gout of fire, shattering the cracked crystals and cracking several more. He immediately followed up with slashes from his blades, shattering two more crystals. As Vivi teleported away, Balazar grabbed tightly to the last remaining crystal. The dragon roared in pain and bucked up beneath him.
On the ground below, Cassian looked up as the dragon reared onto its tail, and began charging another bolt of electricity. Its crystals lit up under Balazar, though dimmer than before.
"Wait!" Arnick shouted, "we don't want to fight you!"
"Speak for yourself gnome!" Balazar cried from his perch.
"The ball of lightning smashed down into Cassian's body, knocking him unconscious once more.
"Oh Lord Analor, give me strength," Talna muttered, and chanted another healing spell to bring Cassian back to consciousness.
Vivi teleported between the dragons legs and grabbed Cassian, but their teleportation portal closed before they could haul the half-orc to safety.
Vexed by Balazar's presence on its back, the dragon swung its tail at him. At the last moment, Balazar dodged out of the way, and the dragon's tail smacked across its own back with terrific force, shattering the remaining crystals. The dragon roared in pain and sat back on its tail, an expression of fear and anguish etched across its face.
Vexed by Balazar's presence on its back, the dragon swung its tail at him. At the last moment, Balazar dodged out of the way, and the dragon's tail smacked across its own back with terrific force, shattering the remaining crystals. The dragon roared in pain and sat back on its tail, an expression of fear and anguish etched across its face.
Arnick turned at the sound of footsteps behind him and saw Fei walking up the trail of broken trees. The dragon also spotted Fei, and let out a whimper of pain, as though pleading for help from its single ally.
Hearing this, Fei turned to Arnick. "I have an idea," she whispered to the gnome. "Play along." With that, the druid slapped the gnome on the head.
"Oww ow ow!" Arnick yelled out, in an exaggerated shout of pain. The gnome spun on his heels and fell over, pretending to be dead.
The dragon made a hopeful noise at this display.
"Talna!" Fei shouted. The cleric, taking in the plan, nodded subtly. Fei picked up a rock and hurled it, smacking Talna in her armored chest. "Damnation, that hurt!" Talna protested, then made a show of collapsing to the ground.
Sadun, turning from her run towards the dragon, took in the scene quickly, and made up her mind. She let loose a primal howl of fear and fled the scene, running as fast as she could into the trees away from Fei and the dragon.
"Now's my chance," Vivi said, grabbing Cassian and teleporting away. When they were safe, they put the half-orc down.
"Thanks for the save," Cassian said, standing up.
"Wait, you were awake?" Vivi said in surprise. "Well, be seeing you people. I have some research to do." And with that, the wizard teleported away. Cassian shrugged, and wandered back towards the road.
With a sigh, Balazar followed suit, hopping off the dragon, giving it a dirty look, then walking quickly into the trees, muttering about not being able to kill the dragon by himself.
The dragon, seeing its foes fled at the entrance of Fei, seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Fei coaxed it back to the lake, and the dragon swam back down to safety.
After seeing the dragon safely away, Fei returned to the road, and the camp site the group had slept at just a few days prior. The rest of the party gathered there, nursing their injuries. Balazar was already drinking again.
"I at least have some good news, I did find some magical weapons," Fei said, putting her find on the ground in front of them.
TO BE CONTINUED
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