Ice-bound

After short discussion, we decided to part ways with Eamon and his airship. We could not expect them to fly deeper into the dragon’s territory, and they weren’t willing to let us give them a quick escape via portal. I hope Eamon and his financiers realize what hard times we are in, and take more caution the next time they fly the Heart of the Mountain commercially.

I summoned some phantom steeds and we departed immediately. It was just before noon. A little after noon, we started to get a little nervous as we knew bad weather was on the way. Shortly after being alarmed at the inbound weather, we noticed momma dragon in pursuit of us. (At least she didn’t follow the airship.) We spotted a rocky crevasse ahead that we began darting for, and we realized a stampede of elk close behind us had the same idea.

As we fled towards the crevice, we new we needed to cross it completely in order to avoid the approaching herd of elk. There was some fussing with some rope. In the excitement I was silly enough to try jumping across the crevice. As I failed to make the distance, I landed in the crevice. As I began to attempt to climb out, with the chill of the air nipping at my nose, I fell again. Whilst my companions more or less made it safely across, I was suddenly the landing destination for a downpour of elk. I was quickly literally buried in elk, having fallen to their doom.

The dragon abated its attack and after carefully getting out of the crevice, we made for rocky caves we saw ahead. After a couple hours of riding, we arrived at the cave. After we had been inside for a couple minutes, the dragon showed up again. We retreated into the cave. We passed through an opening, after which we began knocking loose stalactites to block the dragons passage. The dragon began gnashing at the icy rock wall we had created. We calmly proceeded deeper into the caves.

We emerged into a large cavern. We became aware that most of the ground beneath us was actually frozen water. We came to this realization after noticing a sea-faring vessel upended, partially in and partially out of the ice. The boat was named “Her Only Mane”, and appeared to be of Goliath origins. We took a few supplies from the boat, finding no remains of the crew, and took little notice of a broken ballista frozen and mounted on the boat.

We proceed out of the cavern with the boat into a larger cavern. We noticed some scavenger insets on the wall just before spotting dragon eggs. Some recently hatched, most still biding their time. This particular cavern had a ceiling opening, far above us, revealing the sky behind. At was at this moment that we realized the mother dragon was no longer trying to smash he way through that wall we made.

Dresorth then frees a dragon egg from the ground below to hold hostage, as Tazi climbed onto an ice plateau that dominated the room. Tazi immediately notices a small treasure horde and the skulls of Goliaths, undoubtedly the ones that had manned the boat. I climbed up onto the plateau to assist Tazi in collecting the giant coins we found there, knowing that if we were going to make a run for it, it would be soon. The mother dragon immediately arrived from above, roaring in all of her fury. I attempted to dissuade the dragon’s aggression by pointing out that we held one of its offspring hostage, but she was not stifled. In response, Dresorth attempted to draw the attention of her anger by destroying the egg he held. It worked.

As the rest of the troupe fought the dragon, I ran into the previous cavern and got the ballista into working order. It took considerable effort. We knew that we had little chance of felling the dragon without it. After my repairs were complete, I called for help and Tazi arrived and assisted in repositioning the ballista.

The rest of the party soon followed, along with the dragon. Tazi manned the the ballista as the rest of us collected in the opening between the boat’s cavern and the dragon’s primary nesting chamber. We distracted the dragon long enough for Tazi to pull off the shot. Between the ballista hit and the point of our blades, the dragon was soon slain.

Afterwards, we destroyed the remaining eggs, and collected every bit of booty from atop the ice plateau. Tired from our works, we rested in the cavern that night. We rested well.