Ladrengielle – blogpost 16

We return to Skella to convince her to join us to fight the dragon and afterward loot her for the dagger. Skella wants us to open the black door and won’t join us until it is opened. I try to convince her to join us and leave the door for now, but Farryn interrupts us and takes the reigns. I take over again and try to charm Skella, but it does not work. Luckily, she doesn’t notice I try to cast a spell on her. We tell her we need to find the dwarven King to open the door, so we don’t think it will open soon, and if she guards it well, she could leave the investigation to find the dragon. Finally, she is convinced and takes two other Duergarr with her to follow us to Valdemar.

At the lair, I cast message to Valdemar to warn him, but get a massive migraine and almost faint. Borac helps me up. Skella takes the lead in the fight and runs toward Valdemar. Farryn stuns the Duergarr for just a second so Valdemar can attack first with his poison. The Duergarr Skella’s brought with her instantly die: I can see black veins in their necks indicating their demise. Suddenly, I realize Borac did not follow us inside the lair. I look around and see a handaxe fly through the sky, landing in Skellas’ back. With a face of utter surprise and betrail, she falls to the ground. Valdemar pulls all the golden armor off of her, adding it to his hoard. I see the red ruby dagger! Farryn saw it as well because he immediately asks if we could have the dagger as a reward. Valdemar laughs and scoffs: ‘No, I helped you in this fight; you don’t deserve a reward.’ I see a door to my right and open it slightly. Valdemar sees it and says that it’s a portal: everyone who wants to go through needs to pay a toll to him. Nah, we’re fine here. I want to get that dagger and the head-sword anyways. Borac enters and tries to convince Valdemar again to give us the dagger. He approaches Valdemar until they are nose to nose – as far that’s possible. The answer stays ‘no’, and we exit. We walk further away from the lair to discuss what to do next: we need that dagger, and I secretly want the sword inside the dragons’ head. Farryn is scared Wyllow and her cat will attack us if we fight Valdemar. Borac and I don’t give a shit about that: we just want the magical loot. Borac activates all his magical items and grows in size. Farryn casts his spell to hold the dragon back for a second. The rest of us will assist with cantrips because all our spells have run out.

The fight is fairly easy: Borac does most of the work and chops Valdemars’ head clean off. I run to the hoard, take the dagger and a black pearl, and flank Borac. Pethar grabs a golden shield, and Farryn a spell scroll. Borac pulls the magic sword out of Valdemars’ head and wants to divide the loot. Until…..

We hear a ‘swooosh’ sound outside. It sounds like fire: we look and see a Fire Elemental approach the lair. It grabs Farryn and he’s on fire within seconds. Crissan enters from another angle and starts to attack as well. The fight goes on and on and on… We are in a real pickle. I defeat the Fire Elemental and it transforms: it turns out to be Wyllow! A large fire splits the party inside the lair. I’m scared… Where is Borac?!

Behind me, Crissan sneaks up on me at attacks. I am knocked out. I wanted to save Pethar but before I can, I lie on the ground. Before I close my eyes I can see Borac. Still fighting. I believe in him, and I love him.

After Pethar defeats Wyllow, Crissan transforms into a humanoid and lies knocked out on the ground. Farryn is knocked out too but is still breathing. Pethar tries to stabilize Borac and Ladrengielle, but finds out they're dead already and there is nothing he can do to save them... Pethar is alone and drags Borac and Ladrengielle to the hoard and lays them next to each other. He performs a ceremony and marries them. Afterward, he buries them in gold and sets it all alight: the gold melts over Ladrengielle and Borac holding hands, forever remembered in their golden caskets.