(S04) Planes, Dragons and Automobiles

Now somewhat recovered fron the landslide, the party starts packing up, deciding to head to Gnomegarde despite their injuries and the tragic loss of Zenari, believed to be crushed when the ruins were buried after the trap protecting the mysterious crystal was triggered. Nundro Rockseeker and Gundren Rockseeker waved goodbye to them and headed off to Phandalin on an odd mechanised cart. They held one of the two sending stones and promised to send word if Zenari somehow had made her way to Phandalin.

Meanwhile....

Zenari was falling. Falling into a place that was not a place but was also a thousand places. When the magic rolled back and struck her she had seen the world spiral away like water being sucked down a drain. She was hurtling at unbelievable speed through a tunnel of emerald energy for what seemed like days. Her movements felt feel floaty and sluggish, like moving through a dream, and looking around she could see tiny images of countless dream-images flitting by in the distance. Massive objects, like boulders, floated in the void of sickly green light, hurtling past her far too fast to comprehend their unearthly shapes.

A piece of stone debris starts growing closer with each passing moment threating to stop her fall with a dramatic finallity but by simple wishing to stop Zenari makes herself weightless and suddenly...stops.

Gently touching down upon this debri, which she now realises is a strange sort of building, she sees a crystal encircled by a green aura akin to the color of new spring leaves, an aura she had seen before in her childhood. Attempting to grab the crystal she is stopped in her tracks by a nightmarish creature slithering towards her. It had a headless torso covered with eyes and twitching limbs, including two massive arms that end in powerful pincers, and a serpentine tail tipped with a vicious stinger. It let out a piercing shriek and stopped the crystal from floating away when Zenari tried to telekinetically bring it to herself. "You come to Dal Quor of your own volition… you are arrogant and foolish, and you shall soon be a slave of the Dreaming Dark.” Its slimy voice slurps from a puckered mouth hidden somewhere in its nightmarish flesh. Reaching out with a renewed vigor Zenari tore the crystal from it's grasp and touched it herself.

Meanwhile...

Now a few hours in their trip the party's trek was interupted by the mysterious crystal they found. Idris tried to remove it from a backpack but it tumbled out on it's own accord and started spinning midair, an array of crazy colors shining around the landscape. Siax was shone on by a yellow light and grew antlers. Idris hands were engulfed in red and dissapeared. Koraliki was washed over with ap urple hew and she instantly felt livelier, realising she had grown younger by four years. Pine now was leaving a colour trail, perfect illusory duplicates of him left behind, each a different colour. Finally, with a masive audible crack, the crystal shone green downwards and plants grew outward and caught Zenari as she reapeared in the real world. Some of the effects vanished as time passed such as Idris's hands coming back and Pine stopping the colour trail but others remained. No explanation for what had happened could be figured out so mystified but happy to have regained their companion the group continued their way.

Making good time they quickly caught up with the group of Orcs and Goblins that they had seen pass by the Dwarven Expedition. Preparing for combat they were suprised when the group leader raised his greataxxe over his head and threw it on the ground, raising his hands in a sign of surrender. Idris, eager to speak to the orc, strode forward. Siax, silently cursing, followed as his knowledge of the Orc and Goblin languages would come in handy. Speaking with the orc chieftain they found out that the group was only seeking a new home after being driven away from their original home by the Dragon Cryovain. Having had back luck close to the coast owing to hostilities of folk they encountered they had decided to head back. The orc wasn't willing to speak much with them but between Idris's persuasion and Siax's skill with language they found out that the orcs that had attacked the caravan were led by Tarvas, an orc warchief who had apparently listened to a Half-Orc. Not much more detail was able to be had as the two parties split and prepared to let each other pass.

Alas, a cry from a goblin and an upraised finger alterted everyone to the rapidly aproaching Dragon. Both groups tried to hide and in a panic some did so rather rudimentally. However, luck shone on the party and one of the goblins revealed itself entirely. The ground shook and everything became covered in dust as the dragon impacted and attacked the others instantly killing an orc and a goblin. The chieftain picked up it's greataxe and attempted to fight it, telling to the others to run. They did but one of them, apparently an adolescent, changed her mind and charged back with a scream in Orcish. Before she could complete her charge of certain death Idris met her gaze from his hiding spot and used his divine powers to command her one simple thing. "Flee". If she saw reason or was unable to resist his power we do not know, but flee she did. A few precious moments later, the chieftain was frozen alive and then bitten in twain by Cryovain who then flew off and chased the remaining group. The party did not move from their hiding place and that was a wise move as the dragon returned only twenty minutes later, to finish feasting on the chieftain. During this time Siax risked taking a better look and not only saw an old greivious wound upon the dragon, going from head to wing but also injuries on it's neck, akin to the ones a prisoner would get from their bindings. Minute after torturous minute passed and the Dragon finally flew away, dissapearing in the distance, faster than a horse could gallop.