Pax Tharkis 18th-20th

Party: Strays

Vodren-Human Cleric

Ryai-Elf Spellblade

Shim-Human Artificer

Bomba-Gnome Monk

Broud- Half-Ogre Cleric

The now stray dandies with Aydrinel, Laith, and Silver travel through the corrupted woods that once were Qualinesti. The forest actively works against the group, trying to get them lost. However, Shim’s compass and Vodren’s survival skills kept them from becoming hopelessly lost.

While traveling, they find that they are being followed. Their follower, however, doesn’t stay hidden for long as he is revealed to be Rigny from Solace, much to Ryai’s relief and Vodren’s regret. Rigny tells them he came to Qualinesti to try and get help to save his wife and daughter, who the Red Dragon Armies took prisoner. The group allows Rigny to follow them.

In another clearing, they hear a voice from the trees telling them to put down their weapons in elven. Wary Ryai tries to call out, asking who they are. They shoot at Broud without hesitation, and Ryai tells the party to drop their weapons. He pleads with their potential attackers and drops that he is an Aedlock traveling with his father. Laith backs him up, referring to him as his son. Their attacker makes his presence known and reveals himself to be Prince Gilthanas.

With the threat gone, he tells the group that he and his brother, the crowned Prince Porthios, have been taking in other refugees from the incident in Qualinost and have established a camp. Gilthanas leads them to the camp, where Vodren, Broud, and Shim immediately offer their services to help the injured. Ryai and Bomba report to Porthios about what happened in Qualinost with Laith.

Ryai and Bomba recount and practically confirm Paladithel’s motives for deposing the Speaker and taking the position himself after the ritual. Porthios thanks them for their update, and Laith requests a private audience with Porthios about his “personal” grievances with Paladithel.

The group rejoins and hears that one of the prisoners they have taken is a dwarf woman named Dust, who claims to be from Pax Tharkis. The group talks to her and meets another prisoner from the dragon armies in the same tent. Shim recognizes that Dust is from a lineage of dwarves with magical abilities who aren't the most mentally stable. Dust tells them she was sent to get help from the elves to free the prisoners from Solace with one major caveat: they all get out, or no one gets out. When asked to elaborate, she tells them that the army has the children currently guarded by an elderly, old dragon. Ryai recognizes her as Matafluer, a red dragon who lost all her children to war and has gone mad from grief. They agreed that they would save the prisoners.

The group discusses their options and what they potentially know about Pax Tharkis. The current Dragon Highlord is a man named Verminaard. Shim recognizes the name and knows him as a bastard child of two Solomnic nobles and a Cleric of Tahkisis. He and his dragon Ember are her fanatics and shouldn’t be taken on unless they have an excellent plan of attack.

Laith rejoins them after his conversation with Porthios. While the blame for what happened with Cyan and Qualinost is taken off both of their shoulders, everything else Paladithel has done ensures he will become a dark elf. Ryai asks if he and Aydrinel will come with them or if they are staying behind. Laith tells him they will remain with the others. 

The group prepares for the night. Shim helps build traps, and Vodren sees a multicolored phoenix diving into Verminaard and Ember. Ryai approaches Porthios to ask for Dust's custody while they head for Pax Tharkis. Porthios, however, assumes he’s come to ask about Paladithel, to which Ryai asks that he delivers him a message: “The only reason he breathes is that I let him.” Porthios grants the Dandies custody of Dust, and Ryai spends the rest of the night with his family.

The following day, the group is awoken by an ambush. Without hesitation, Ryai joins the the battlefront with Broud following closely behind him. Broud notices enemy archers in the trees, and they quickly set them ablaze. In the fighting, Shim finds Gilthanas and creates traps for the enemy to hinder their movement, allowing the prince to pick them off. Vodren stays with the wounded in the camp and defends them as he changes to a gorilla. 

Bomba, however, checks the prisoner tent and finds the dragon army prisoner choking Dust. With quick precision, Bomba kills the man, saving Dust’s life. With the man dead, Bomba sneaks onto the battlefield. Ryai fights with reckless abandon and gets severely injured in the process, forcing a retreat. Bomba, however, manages to find their commander and kills him, causing the enemy to retreat.

The party rejoins after the commotion and prepares to leave for Pax Tharkis. To keep in touch, Shim creates a ring that simulates Morse code and gives it to Porthios. Vodren confesses to an injured Rigny that in Solace, he injured his wife, and Rigny tells him that so long as they come back alive. He’ll forgive him.  Before they set off, Laith reminds Ryai that he can’t help anyone if he’s dead and gives him the blueprints to Pax Tharkis.

–

The party travels towards the edge of the woods, trying to set a few draconians on a different path from a refugee camp. They make it to the clearing where the dragon armies have camped outside the fortress. Across the field is where Dust points out the secret entrance. They do their best to quickly cross without drawing attention. Upon entering, they are met by another group of dwarves watching the entrance. They seem slightly confused by the lack of elves, but Bomba reassures them. Unfortunately, it isn’t long until they discover they were spotted in the field by the scouts, and they have come to investigate. Bomba tries to taunt them into staying, but they leave to report their findings. Shim, however, collapses the entrance, keeping them safe from being attacked from there. 

They talk with the dwarves about the layout of the place. They are warned of the grey robes, Sivak draconians, and Ogres. They are also informed that Branton has been the spokesperson for the Solace people and that Verminaard has been bragging about a recent prisoner from Crossing, which Vodren and Ryai deduce to be Alaban Bluecloak. They also warn of a quartermaster they would like taken out.

They go in further and disguise themselves as slaves to enter in with the rest of the prisoners. Another one of Dust’s clan members guards the entrance, gives the party a once over, and determines Broud as “new meat.” He grows to twice Broud’s size and whips him. However, the group is allowed with the other prisoners without incident once he finishes. A few recognize Ryai and Vodren from their time in Solace and quickly spread the word among the others. The party bides some of their time; Shim, Bomba, and Vodren pretend to help with the forge the prisoners are forced to work on. Ryai takes the time to try to heal Broud’s wounds from being whipped. 

During the rest, Ryai also tries to get his vision again from Solinari and is shown standing before Verminaard and Ember but being stripped of all his magic. While trying to plan, a large rock falls into one of the forges, drawing the attention and ire of the guards. Shim and Broud work to fix it quickly, while Vodren tries to make it seem like an earthquake. Instead, the guards notice Vodren doing magic and start to question him. Vodren tries to play dumb, but the guards don’t buy it. Ryai steps forward and backs up Vodren’s ignorance, but instead of the guards admitting they were wrong, Ryai agrees to take the blame and meet with Branton and the person in charge of the prisoners. Shim, however, is worried about his friend’s safety, rigging one of the forges to explode taking some of the heat off the group.

The group, deciding they were getting nowhere fast with a stealthy approach, chose to take the quickest route to save the children and incite a riot. Along with a dwarf Bomba befriended in the forge, they rally the prisoners and take out the guards; Ryai and Shim calculate their positions, and with a magic scroll taken from his father’s study, they open a portal to directly where the children were being kept. They find Rigny’s wife caring for the infants. She is shocked and not too pleased to see Vodren again. She tells them where the children are being kept, but Matafluer, fast asleep, is still guarding them.

 Shim and Bomba look for a way to carefully bust through the wall while Vodren tries to pray for a way to mold the stone. Ryai, however, gets another idea and instead lies to Matafluer, convincing her he is one of her dead children and that Ember intends to kill them all. The senile old dragon is fully convinced he is one of her children reborn, thanks him, and takes off after the younger red dragon. With the children free, the prisoners fight back against their captors. Ryai hands Rigny’s wife his scroll of teleportation to Wayreth, telling her to teleport there if something goes wrong. Bomba punches through the room's ceiling, and the party starts going up through their makeshift hole.

They make their way to the kitchen, where they were told the new draconian was coming from, and head to the adjacent cutlery room to get the drop on anyone in there. Bomba punches through the wall again, and they find it’s been converted to an office. Ryai inspects the papers while the rest enter the kitchen proper. They see Portkins from Solace holding back the door with the rest of his kitchen crew. They all quickly realize that the quartermaster is Vorlo’s sister Torrah, who is trying to barge in the door.  

Vodren tries to call her and reason with his friend’s sister, but she won’t listen, leaving them as enemies.

They seal off the door to give Portkins and the others a chance to escape while Vodren finds the entrance to where the dragon eggs are being hidden. They enter the dark tunnel and eventually come across a room where a man praying to Tahkisis is found. They try to talk to him, but he prays to the dark god, and her alter attacks the group. The man dies, and they can hear the kitchen door start to break. 

The group runs forward and comes upon where the eggs are being kept. Silver suddenly appears as a flea and leaps off Vodren, turning into Vajra. He hands the group a bag to hold and starts putting the eggs in as he goes back to deal with their would-be intruders. Ryai knows that changelings can’t become animals, and everything clicks into place, realizing Silver is a copper dragon. They grab the eggs, and Silver returns and takes the bag from them when the way is clear. The Dandies return to the fortress while Silver breaks through the cavern.

With the eggs saved, the Dandies next try to find Alaban. Before that can happen, however, they find that the people of Solace are cornered by a heavily injured Ember and Verminaard, who threaten to kill them.  The group hesitates, but Ryai readies a shot to get their attention. Vodren follows suit, calling Verminaard to tell him that he’s already lost and they have the eggs. As soon as he says that, Ember locks eyes with a fleeing Silver and takes off after him. 

A voice comes to Vodren as he weighs his options. The usual comfort and warning that came with a miracle on this scale. That there would be no going back if he chose this path. But as Inevitable whispered to him, he knew what he must do. He turned to his friends and told them he loved them as his body began to contort and change. In the pit of Ryai’s stomach, something about this felt wrong, but he didn’t have the time to process the consequences of Vodren’s actions. Now before them was a Roc, ready to take on what most would call a suicide mission. 

Vodren dug his claws deep into the red dragon, attempting to knock Verminaard off Ember’s back. While he managed to dislodge the rider, Ember quickly grabbed him before he could fall. Vodren turns to Ryai and calls for him to finish the fight. Ryai, staring down the monster he once saw all those months ago in Solace, turns to his friends and says on his mark, they jump. 

With a feather fall, Bomba and Ryai land on the back of Ember while Shim and Broud land on Silver. Broud and Shim heal the copper dragon from Ember’s previous assault. Bomba aims for the dragon’s wing, severely injuring and forcing him to descend from the sky. And before Ryai can strike the open patch of scales Vodren made, Verminaard reappears right before him. 

Verminaard calls out to his goddess, praying she holds Bomba and Ryai in place. Bomba manages to resist the effects of Tahkisis, but try as she might, she can find no purchase to paralyze Ryai. Ryai calls her bluff, and Verminaard returns in kind by striking him with his mace, blinding Ryai. Ember knocks Bomba from his back, leaving Ryai alone. Vodren launches himself back into Ember, who tries to bind his wings. Vodren breaks free of them and buries his beak deep into Ember’s chest, tearing his heart out. With Ember dead on the ground, Silver launches his breath attack on Verminaard, who still stands. 

Shim calls out for Ryai to move. But Ryai weighs his options. With the last midnight pearl in his teeth, he crushes it and surrounds both of them in darkness. Ryai blindly lashes out, his rapier getting his foe to land on his back. Now cleared of his blindness, it all becomes clear.

Like his final night in Bluecloak manor, Ryai sinks his blade deep into Verminaard’s throat until he breathes his last. 

The Red Army saw the fallen Ember retreat from Pax Tharkis temporarily, allowing the Dandies to let the scene sink in. Ryai sees Bomba and Shim yell at Vodren before Marovie appears to him. The bird glows blue before him as Habbakuk's voice softly rings out from his beak. He explains that Vodren can no longer return to how he once was and that now something greater calls to him. 

Grief and anger overcome Ryai as he latches on to his former friend. He sobs into his golden feathers while Vodren assures him they will both be alright