Although Fyn, Fobias, and Trace are squeezed as they teleport back up to the dragon’s cave, their damage is mainly superficial. They stage the giant bodies in a way that suggests a greedy scuffle in which the giants argued over hoard before stealing it for themselves. Thanks to Fobias’ stealthy scent-masking, the party feels confident that the dragon will buy the story.
Now it’s decision time. A full-scale assault on the fortress seems ill-advised and foolhardy. Unfortunately, the party lacks the necessary resources to penetrate the walls in an aerial capacity. They finally decide to scout out the cliff-face and see if there might be an alternative passage in. After all, Fort Rannick had a ‘secret’ passage underneath the waterfall. With any luck, they hope to gave the same good fortune here.
The cliffs are steep and Trace has some trouble climbing down. Even with the help of a knotted rope, the paladin loses his grip and falls to the riverside below. Fyn helps out with some party-wide healing once they all reach the bottom to join the fallen paladin, before turning his attention towards the cliffs.
There are two openings on the side. Krask climbs up to the closest ledge and takes a peek inside. Piles of discarded bones litter the floor, suggesting that this cave is inhabited by some kind of carnivore. A shimmering opal sparkles atop a low mound in the middle of the cave, drawing Krask’s attention.
As much as he wants to run up and snatch the beautiful gem, Krask knows that rushing blind into what could potentially be another dragon’s den would be akin to suicide. He drops a rope and the remaining party members clamber up to join him. Unfortunately, their climbing alerts the cave’s inhabitants, and three wyverns swoop out and attack!
Attack Formation
The thing you have to worry about with wyverns isn’t their flesh-ripping bite, although you certainly can’t sleep on that either. No, the real worry with wyverns is their poison, which can debilitate even the heartiest of constitutions.
Barnaby kicks things off by going invisible and advancing on the winged beasts. Unfortunately, Fyn does something that has happened far too frequently during the course of this campaign; he casts an area-of-effect spell covering the area where the invisible Barnaby lies in waiting.
It’s a tale as old as time.
Fortunately, the acid cloud isn’t as devastating as some of the other iterations of this scenario. Instead, the wyverns are weakened by the noxious fumes and must reposition themselves in the narrow cavern.
Fobias and Trace get in close, narrowly avoiding the wyverns’ poisonous attacks. And once Barnaby appears again, that’s all she wrote. Surrounded by a trio of wyvern bodies, the party turns their attention to the caves.
Treasure Time
The wyverns don’t have anything noteworthy on them (come on, they’re wyverns). However, since they are creatures of the draconic variety, you KNOW there is going to be some sort of hoard involved. It’s certainly not as expansive as the sprawling pile of treasure in the previous cave, but this loot would still be considered a small fortune in its own right.
The party packs up the coins and the Staff of Understanding before investigating the fire opal. Fyn and Barnaby don’t recognize this gem as being prominent in historical channels or noble houses, but perhaps letting the information simmer will spark something from their memory.
Until then, Jorgenfist beckons…