Vivi looked at the teleportation circle they had etched into the rock and felt satisfied. They had been researching for the past six months, first in the libraries of the City of Rebellion, and later in what seemed to be the ruins of an old wizard's tower near an abandoned town. After a lot of effort, Vivi had succeeded in mastering several new teleportation methods, including the circle in front of them. They had attuned to the circle in the royal palace of the City of Rebellion, and had found another circle set up near the wizard's tower (although why any wizard would set up a teleportation circle so far from their tower, in a field of flowers no less, was beyond them). Finally Vivi had traveled for some time, teleporting short distances until they found an isolated oasis in the middle of a desert, a perfect retreat should it become necessary.
The stubby trees fluttered their large leaves in the dry breeze of the desert as Vivi thought. It was strange that the wizard's tower had so many kobold tracks around it. But stranger still were several more humanoid prints, and at least one distinctive track of a dragonborn like themselves. Could Sadun and Balazar have been there? They had a tendency to get in trouble, and perhaps the ruins were not as ancient as Vivi had first thought. Remembering Sadun, Vivi turned back to the circle. It had been over six months since they had last seen their friend. Surely Sadun was in trouble again by now. Time to see how the circle worked over long distances. The blue scaled dragonborn began scrying on Sadun's aetheric signature...
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The forest was quiet as Vivi stepped out of thin air. Based on their scrying, Sadun should be nearby. Strange that the teleportation spell had left them on top of a very tall tree. Was this forest full of redwoods? The air was strangely still, and Vivi realized they could not hear the sounds of any of a forest's usual inhabitants. No squirrels chittering at each other, no bird calls. Very strange.
Turning to survey the area, the wizard made note of what looked like a large city in the distance. As Vivi got their sense of direction back, they decided the city was in the north. And there, coming closer, was an enormous black scaled dragon. Vivi ducked beneath the leaf cover to avoid detection, and as they did noticed a large eagle carrying two humanoid figures dropping into the tree cover. The dragon seemed to be heading in their direction.
"Of course Sadun's party managed to pick a fight with a dragon," Vivi sighed. "Well, they'll definitely need my help to get out of this one. It's a good thing I decided to check on them."
After carefully scaling down the tree, Vivi set off in the direction in which they had seen the eagle land. After several yards of walking they found Sadun and Arnick the gnome. And an unknown genasi?
"Why are you standing against that tree Sadun?" Vivi asked, approaching.
"Vivi! By the ancestors it is good to see you. There's a giant dragon chasing us, I think Cass and Sy made it upset? But I'm not sure, Whistle had already taken us out of the area before it showed up." Sadun paused, thinking. "Oh, Vivi this is Whistle. She's a traveling bard hoping to write a story of our adventures someday. Whistle, this is my friend Vivi, They're from another world too, but they are not a champion. Vivi just specializes in teleportation magic and managed to follow us here."
Vivi gave Whistle a brief nod. "So why are you standing against that tree?"
"Oh, right. This whole forest is alive. I mean, it is more sentient than your typical forest. The trees will try to strangle you in their branches if you hurt them. I'm hoping that will affect the dragon if it finds us here, since I couldn't find any decent hiding place." Sadun looked a bit rattled. "I never thought I'd see such a large dragon," she muttered.
"Sadun, there's an uprooted tree right behind the one you're leaning on. Why don't you hide in that?" Vivi asked.
"What? How did I miss that?" the silver scaled dragonborn moaned. The group moved around the tree to take cover in the roots.
"Look, it's got some smooth roots at the right level to sit on!" Whistle exclaimed.
"And that bit of tree sticking out is practically a table," Arnick added. "Good, I can start drawing the day's sights there." The gnome walked determinedly towards the shelf-like root at the innermost end of the tree's root bundle, and tripped over a root.
"What's wrong with the gnome?" Vivi asked.
"I think he ate some mushrooms Fei had," Sadun said quietly. "I'm sure this will get interesting shortly."
"Do you hear that?" Whistle asked. The group poked their heads out of the root structure and looked toward the sound. "That's the hydra," Sadun said. "It looks like it's chasing the dragon."
"I can see why," Whistle said. "That great beast is tearing the trees up as it flies overhead."
"Um, isn't that Fei and Sy in the dragon's claws?" Arnick said, staring into the sky.
"What? Are they still alive?" Sadun demanded.
"I think so. I think I can see Sy smacking at it with a sword," the gnome replied, squinting.
Sadun rushed out of the roots and began climbing a nearby redwood, bracing herself with a rope looped around the trunk.
"Where are you going?" Vivi called up.
"If there's anything I can do, I need to try it," Sadun said.
"What could you possibly do against a dragon that size?" Vivi asked incredulously.
"I don't know, but maybe I'll think of something by the time I get to the top," Sadun said, continuing to climb.
Vivi thought for a long moment as they watched their friend climb a tree towards almost certain death. With a sigh, the dragonborn wizard decided not to simply leave the group to their fate, and cast a warding enchantment on themself.
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Cassian and Poppy watched the dragon fly past their hiding place a dozen yards away from where Sadun, Arnick, Whistle and Vivi hid. "It's a good thing I remembered that flying potion," Cassian said. "That dragon surely would have seen your ears in that bush as it left the underground."
"Sometimes a rabbit wants to hear what's going on," Poppy said dryly. "Can we get out from under this invisibility cloak now? I'm sure the dragon decided to chase your friends and has forgotten about us. And I think I just heard something hit the ground as the dragon passed overhead."
"Ah, yes," Cassian muttered. "About the cloak. If you step out from under it you'll be blind."
"WHAT?" Poppy roared.
"Quiet," Cassian hissed. "I don't know how well the dragon hears!"
"Why didn't you tell me about the blindness before we got under the cloak?" Poppy demanded, in a slightly quieter voice.
"Well, to be fair you'll only be blind for as long as you were under the cloak. I've tested it out a few times. Wait, do you hear that?" Cassian looked into the distance.
"It sounded like something stomping through the forest. What could that be?"
"I'm not sure. The only things in this forest that might make such a noise are the treant and the hydra Fei told us about. And I don't think the treant would make such a racket..." Cassian pondered the possibilities.
"Well I'm getting out of this cloak. I'm sick and tired of you people dragging me through places where I can't see." Poppy crawled out from under the cloak and then felt his way to a nearby tree and sat down in a huff.
Cassian shrugged and stood up. He looked in the direction the dragon had been traveling, and spotted a small golden glowing hammer. "Sy must have dropped that," Cassian said under his breath. He took the cloak off and his sight immediately went blank. "Poppy, I think I saw Sy's hammer! Can you see again yet? I've come out from under the cloak, could you get it for me?"
The rabbit folk groaned. "The elf with horns dropped a hammer? Fine, fine." Poppy looked in the direction Cassian had pointed and spotted the hammer. Walking up to it, he picked it up.
As soon as he lifted the hammer up to look at it more closely, Sy's voice echoed in his head. "Who is it?"
Poppy dropped the hammer immediately. "The hammer talks..." he muttered.
Cassian walked over, his own sight returning slowly. "The hammer talked to you?" he asked. Poppy just stared at the ground. "It sounds like Sy put her entire soul into the hammer then," Cassian said. "I think the dragon has her then, she may not be expecting to make it out of this."
Poppy glanced at Cassian, who was still trying to blink his sight back. With a swift motion, the rabbit folk grabbed the hammer and hissed "I'd rather you not exist," and hurled the hammer further into the forest. "Oh, no, Cass, the hydra just came by and stepped on the hammer. I'm so sorry." There was a note of sarcasm in his last sentence.
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Sy had woken in the dragon's grip, hurtling through the air. Fei was unconscious in the dragon's other claw. As soon as she dropped her hammer into the forest, she felt better. "At least my soul will live on!" she said to herself.
Taking her sword she stabbed the point into the dragon's enormous finger. The blade snapped in half. Undeterred, she continued slashing the broken blade, chipping bits off of the edge with every swing.
"I guess I'll have to do something more drastic than the sword," Sy muttered, looking at the ruins of her blade compared to the apparently undamaged dragon scales. She pulled a flask from her backpack and hurled it at the dragon's head. The flask smashed into the dragon's eye and burst into flame. The dragon came to a halt, hovering in mid-air, and brought Sy up to its face.
"Is that all?" the dragon rumbled.
Sy threw her broken sword at the dragon's face. It fell short and tumbled to the forest below. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Fei had woken in the dragon's other claw. The druid's arm was stretched out and sparks arcing from her outstretched fingertips. Sy looked back at the dragon, which was staring intently at her. She reached into her pack again and pulled out a yellow diamond.
The dragon's eyes opened wider. "That is part of my hoard,"it rumbled.
Sy grinned and smashed the diamond against the dragon's scaled finger. In a puff of yellow smoke, a bipedal creature made of dark earth appeared and grabbed onto the dragon's arm and began crawling towards its body.
"Enough then, I had hoped to bargain you for the young dragon, but you have caused more trouble than you are worth," the dragon said. It exhaled and a stream of acid spewed from its mouth. The last sight Sy witnessed in this life.
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Fei watched in horror as the dragon dropped the lower part of Sy into the forest below. The part of Sy that had been protected by the dragon's own hand. The rest had... melted away in the stream of acid. Fei concentrated harder on her spear. There was a strong resistance as she drew it towards her, similar to what she had felt during the unfortunate incident with Balazar. Suddenly the dragon drew Fei up to its face as well.
"Ah, you are awake," the dragon rumbled. "Will you be as troublesome as your friend? What are you doing with your arm?"
"Nothing?" Fei ventured. She glances in the direction she felt the pull, and the dragon followed her gaze. A massive clump of dirt, trees and rock was hurtling toward them, and picking up speed.
"What is that then?" the dragon asked, glaring at Fei's outstretched arm.
"It's not to do with me, I assure you," Fei bluffed.
The dragon looked at the mass of earth, and lifted Fei up over its head, then lowered her again. It noted that the mass slowly corrected course based on Fei's position. "Indeed," it said. "Why don't I put you down with your friend then?"
Fei glanced below and saw Sadun standing at the top of a nearby redwood.
"And what are you doing here," the dragon asked as it approached Sadun.
"I'm here to help my friend," Sadun said.
"See?" the dragon said to Fei. "Here is one of your friends. You should stick together." It placed Fei in the tree, then ripped the tree from the ground to hurl it into the sky.
A branch had already snaked up towards Fei in the tree, and wrapped around the druid's neck, jerking her off the tree as the dragon tossed the tree into the air with Sadun still in it.
"Please," Fei managed to say as the branch dragged her back towards the forest. "I know I've caused damage again with my spear, but I'm on your side! Please, throw me at the dragon before it does more damage than I ever could!"
The branch slowed, and then hurled Fei up into the air, snapping the druid's neck. Her body flew up at the surprised dragon just as the mound of earth arrived, obliterating Fei's body on impact and impaling itself into the dragon's side. The dragon fell out of the sky, unconscious.
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Sadun found herself flying through the air. She watched as the mound of earth slammed into the dragon and Fei together. And suddenly Vivi was in front of her.
"Quickly Sadun, grab onto my arm!" the wizard shouted. Sadun complied, feeling numb from the shock of the loss of another two friends. A dark doorway appeared in front of them as Vivi cast another spell, and Sadun found herself on the ground again. Arnick was flailing his arms wildly as Whistle restrained him, shouting something unintelligible. Sadun turned and saw the unconscious form of the dragon nearby. The hydra had finally caught up and was biting and kicking at it as branches attempted to grab the massive beast without much success.
With a roar of rage, Sadun ran at the dragon. She dodged amongst the flailing limbs and heads of the hydra, staggering briefly when she failed to escape one of the hydra's strikes which slammed into her side. Before long the dragonborn found herself at the dragon's head. It was breathing, but still unconscious. Sadun wrenched the dragon's jaws open and then drew from her pack a very cold orb. The orb began to warm up in the open air, and a green smoke began to seep from its surface. With a grunt, Sadun hurled the orb down the dragon's throat, and immediately turned and ran back to the staring group behind her.
Vengeance would be served, eventually.
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Cassian stooped down over Sy's hammer. He had known the hydra hadn't stepped on it, but Poppy hadn't waited around, running towards the commotion further into the wood. Wrapping a spare tunic over the hammer, the half-orc picked the weapon up and clipped it to his belt. "I could always use another hammer after all."
He turned and began walking north, in the direction of the city.
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"I think I see Cassian!" Sadun shouted from her perch halfway up the tree. Whistles protective bubble sat beneath her, with Whistle, Arnick and Poppy sheltering inside.
"Is that the last of your friends?" Vivi called back up.
"Yes, once he's with us we can get out of here," Sadun replied.
Vivi sighed. It was probably noble of Sadun to care about these people, but they seemed like a lot of trouble to Vivi. Still, needs must. They pointed their finger into the air and launched a bolt of fire, being careful not to hit any of the trees. Fortunately there was a gaping hole int he canopy where the tree the dragon ripped out had been.
"He saw your signal!" Sadun called down. "He's turned this way!"
"Good! I'm going to get to work on the teleportation circle. It will take me a minute to get it ready," Vivi replied, getting to work. They noted Arnick, carefully burying the remains of the elf nearby, before suddenly pulling the remains out and shoving them into a bag.
"This is for getting my books melted!" the gnome raged.
Vivi shrugged as they drew the summoning circle in the dirt.
Moments later the half-orc came barreling past Vivi. They heard him say to Arnick "Look after Aeros!" before continuing to run. Vivi ignored this and began chanting the incantation that would power their spell.
"Cass! What are you doing?" Sadun shouted in the background.
"I'm going to lop its head off!" Cassian's reply came back, from further away.
More running feet signaled Sadun running after Cassian. Vivi began stabbing their staff into the circle at precise points, channeling their magical power into each point. The circle began to glow.
"Cass, we have to go, now!" Sadun's voice came from the direction of the dragon.
"Why?" Cassian's replied.
"The dragon is waking up!" Sadun shouted.
"Oh shit, we have to get out of here!" Cassian said. "Arnick, why is Aeros over here pecking at the dragon?!"
"It got away from me," Arnick replied. "I'll get it back!"
Vivi stabbed their staff once more into the dirt and the circle began to emit a constant white glow.
"Come on everyone! The portal won't last long!" the dragonborn shouted to whomever was listening. Behind them they hear the sounds of the dragon turning to fight the hydra, which was still attempting to bite through the age hardened scales.
"I don't need any further excuse," Poppy said, jumping into the circle and disappearing.
"Yeah, I'm not waiting on the rest of us," Whistle said, letting her bubble drop and walking into the circle as well.
Vivi turned and watched Cassian and Sadun running back side by side, while nearby Arnick raced ahead, holding a small dragon in his arms. As soon as they were all through the portal, Vivi stepped through as well, the angry roars of dragon and hydra escorting them out of the forest.
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The party found themselves in a field full of flowers. Sadun collapsed onto the ground, finally allowing herself to weep. Whistle sat near the dragonborn, offering comforting pats.
"This is Elle's grave," Arnick gasped, looking at a small constructed monument in the center of the clearing.
Cassian silently began adding a griffin feather necklace to the rocks of Elle's memorial, before building similar memorials to Sy and Fei nearby. A single tear traced its way down familiar lines on his face.
Vivi observed all this in silence. They had not been close to Sy or Fei, having only seeing either of them briefly. They made a note to ask Sadun what had happened to Talna and Balazar though.
A noise caught Vivi's attention. "Who are you?" Poppy's voice came from the undergrowth nearby. A pause, and then Poppy said "Well I have no need to keep your presence a secret."
Turning towards the first noise, Vivi saw a massive humanoid walking towards them. The figure had a long beard and several colorful markings on their skin. They stood over 8 feet tall, much taller than even Sadun.
"Hello," the figure said by way of greeting. "My name is Wretch. My friend and partner Trick is in the bushes there."
"Oh, yeah," a smaller human said, emerging from the direction of Poppy's voice. He had bandoliers full of bottles of different colored liquids strapped to his chest. "I guess I don't need to sneak up if we're not going to assume hostility."
"I cannot handle new people right now," Whistle declared.
"That is fair," Wretch said. "But we would like to speak further in the morning. We will sleep elsewhere."
"You're right you're sleeping elsewhere," Arnick said. "I'm not letting you sleep in my sister's grave field!"
Whistle had already created her signature bubble of protection and disappeared inside its opaque walls.
"By way of explanation, we are a pair of alchemists," Wreck explained. "From another world. We were brought here by the gods."
"Oh good," Sadun said. "We are champions too. Well, most of us. Actually, Cassian over there and I are the only actual champions left in our group."
"We had hoped to meet up with the previous champions," Wreck said. "But nobody had heard from you in six months. We have been here for four months and seen no sign of you. We had assumed you dead."
Sadun looked sadly at the ground. "Many of us have met that fate. But we will strive on. Oh," the dragonborn rummaged in her pack and pulled out a glowing green vial. "You are alchemists? I found this potion in a dead city. I would be interested in hearing what you make of it." She handed it to an already excitedly murmuring Trick. "And you may keep it, I honestly do better with a blade. On that note, I am going to sleep. It has been a trying day."
"We will speak more on the morrow then," Wreck said, ushering Trick away. "I am sure there is much you would like to be caught up on."
Vivi watched the newcomers walk away, talking quietly amongst themselves. They turned and watched Sadun disappear into the bubble. Despite the losses, Vivi felt satisfied that they had come in the nick of time and once more saved their friend from certain death.
TO BE CONTINUED
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