Recollections by Cassio
Recollections by Ci
A party from the Magistery including myself, Dereth, Zanna, Cassio and Ember was finally able to return to the site of the Kobold Lair we hasd identiied so many months ago. We expected a dangerous descent into the troll-infested ruins of old-solace... what we found was much stranger indeed. Firstly we were almost frustrated at the outset. The entrance that we knew led to the lair has been seemily sealed by rust and possible disuse. We were finally able to force it open, and found immediately that the passage we hoped to take had been collased some time ago. However we found an entrance to a cave that had not been there when Zanna last visted. This cave proved to be deeper than Old Solace, and not a part of the ruins at all. It appeared to be natural, but had some very unatural features. Therre were fully cut gemstones "growing" from the walls. As we ventured deeper ito the cave we discovered one of its inhabitants... a Troll. This Troll also had gemstones growing out it's body. Indeed as we talked with it, a few gems "matured" and dropped off its body onto the floor. Oh yes, it spoke! Whatever transformation had overcome this creature, also seemed to have imparted some basic intelligence. We learned this troll was not alone, thta is had other trolls like it in the cave below, and they were all keeping a Red Dragon they had named Garnet as a pet. They also were apparantly waiting for someone named "Morty" to come back and "teach" them more. This Morty seems responisble for at least the trolls ability to speak, if not their other changes as well. Friend Cassio, ever confident in his own abilties, offered to teach the Trolls himself! He suggested since they had learned one language perhaps they would like to learn another? Dwarvish perhaps? This made the trolls very uncomfortable, indeed uncomrfotable to the point of no longer speaking to us. Apparatly they have no love of dwarves. Things really went down hill when Cassio admitted to not being sent by Morty all, but instead wanting to "protect" their dragon pet by taking it away...
In the meantime, upon hearing of the dragon (our original goal in seeking out the Kobold lare) Zanna snuck past the Troll and down deeper into the cave. Still hoping for a peaceful resolution, but wanting to be prepared should we find ourselves suddenly beset by intelligent trolls, I hid in one of Zanna's illusions, poised to come to the party's aid should things go badly, which of course they evntually did. Zanna successfully snuck past the Troll, and two of his compatriots, and was able to confirm the existance of the dragon, and the fact that it was beinmg tended to by a further 2 trolls. Unfortunately, on her way to relay all of this to the rest of the party, she was seen and attacked by the first troll we had encountered.
All thoughts of diplomacy now gone, we hit the troll attacking Zanna as hard as we could. I left the cover of iilusion and nearly felled the first troll outright. We finished him off quickly as well as one of the next two who came to their companions aid. We were luckily able to avoid being engaged by all 5 trolls at once, which surely would have gone badly for us. Zanna fought fiercely, Cassio held the line as always, and Ember summoned a sea hag which managed to take down one of the trolls on its own! Dereth acquitted himelf quite well in the conflict, all the more impressive for being a newcomer to our band, and having little knowledge of the reckless nature of some our number.
After the regrettable slaughter we set about exploring the rest of the cave, and securing the dragon. the place was much larger than we first surmised, continuing deeper into the dark beyond the chamber where the dragon was held. Had we the tiem, we all would have liked to venture further to what mysteries might be uncovered. We determined in this case that, as the Book of the Mountain shares "discretion is the heart of valor" we would attempt to secure the dragon and return to the Magistery. Ember quickly formed a bonbd with the beast, and she did so we noticed that it was missing it's scales. It seems that someone seeking the indredients for the Chaos Curse had already been here. We also noticed that this dragon also had the strange gebs grouwing out of its body. The Dragon now tame to Ember's hand, we made our back to the MAgistery and to Paragon Dooley's desk. He semed very distraught at the presence of the dragon, and ordered it away at once. He seemed genuinly interested in our tale, however, and found all the strange things in the cave to be "curious indeed."
Paragon Dooley truly has a gift for understatement. Zanna and I agreed almost immediately to return to the cvae with whatever help from the Eternal Order we could muster to fully investigate the strange cave and to try to uncover its secrets.