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In attendance:

DM: Jim VanWinkle

After some much needed time apart, Vincent and Aramil scout out the Barony amongst the Hinterlands, and Vincent begins the necessary palm-greasing and spreadin'-around-money actions to strengthen his positions, while Aramil scouts the area for concentrations of goblins, as they're easier to kill when they're all in one place.

Meanwhile, Kesi learns that Kendrick is letting just about anybody look at the “ChaosWatch” Map to see where Chaos lies. A man named Garmin has a lot of questions, especially about the brightest/strongest spot of Chaos on the Map (this would be Bigby) Of note, Garmin wears a talisman of a large, red dragon. Which means nothing to Kesi, sadly.

Pavo goes on giant-hunting missions and has a grand time.

Roderick continues to raise money for the rebuilding of Resh, and the Great Library at Rota, getting back into the swing of shaking hands and rubber chicken dinners and sleeping on nice, soft beds. Flint spends a lot of time around Resh, watching signs of life returning, and sleeping on nice, soft moss.

Bigby enters a small room in the Commune and is not heard from except to ask for more sandwiches.

End pregaming.

Roderick notices a plume of smoke rising from the area of Aramil's grand home. Upon arriving there with Flint (and soon, Kesi), he notices that the plants have been withered, and creatures with great strength have uprooted the trees that weren't destroyed…and then the rest was burned. Quick tracking by Kesi showed something *like* a dragon's foot, and what appears to be a dragon femur used as a walking appendage, and also a large,flat-bottomed foot of an extremely heavy creature. A quick message from Roderick, and Aramil and Vincent take two days to return to Rota to survey the damage, which is total. A message to Bigby is met with an “oh, all right…let me put my robe on”, and to Pavo elicits a “I'm kind of busy here…I'll see what I can do”, but teleports to near the city of Rota. Bigby arrives via teleport at what would be the front 'door' to Aramil's abode, which is a couple hundred feet away from the party. Moments later, Aramil senses a dragon.

Roughly five hundred feet up, obscured in the clouds is a dragon of unrecognizable type…in fact, he would be effectively invisible if he wasn't holding two large creatures in his foreclaws, and has a rider on his back. A quick discussion of strategy occurs (which the party hears part of). Garmin (the shadowmage) speaks to a ring he is wearing, and then casts a spell which gates in a Battle Dragon. The final message from the Shadow Dragon to Garmin was 'you and the golems keep them busy…Chaos is mine“

And a great battle ensued. Aramil switched into his beast form and rushed at the battle dragon. They tore at each other for nearly a minute as the rest of the battle raged on. The Shadow Dragon made a beeline to Bigby, where he used his breath weapon (negative levels) on a rapidly panicking Bigby. The shadow mage cast several spells while mounted, but was eventually dismounted by Kesi, who maintained her balance on the flying shadow dragon's back for some time. By the time Aramil finished with the Battle Dragon, he was badly hurt (as were many in the party…Bigby was merely collecting negative levels like they were rare nickels and getting bitten occasionally, while running away with Greater Dimension Door. The Shadowmage, after Avasculating Kesi, attempted to put some distance between himself and the party, who were beginning to consider him a valid, and even valuable target. Meanwhile, Pavo had eliminated the Dragonbone Golem relatively easily,and moved on to the Ironwyrm Golem, where things were going…slowly. Kesi dimension doored behind the Shadowmage, preparing to knock him out, after noticing that he had killed Vincent with Ye Olde Power Worde Kille. She kicked the shadowmage in the back of the head, then stomped his heart out,impressing and somewhat bothering Roderick, who was rifling the body, after taking the metamagic rod (silent) from Vincent's corpse. He removed both rings from the shadowmage, tossed one aside, and handed it to Kesi, who noted that it was, in fact, a Ring Of Three Wishes with one wish remaining.

Tragically for the shadowdragon and ironwyrm golem, she wished that Roderick could speak. Meanwhile, Bigby would have been killed by the shadowdragon without quick reaction from Roderick, who then spoiled all the fun with a mass heal. The shadowdragon walled Bigby in a hemispherical wall of ice, in order to take care of the rapidly irritating Aramil in his beast form. Meanwhile, Pavo continued to chip away at the ironwyrm golem. Roderick went about restoring lost levels (except to Bigby), and removing fatigue, which Aramil and Pavo thanked him for greatly. Tragically, with the party restored to health and mostly pissed off, the shadow dragon was knocked down, feigning death *just* long enough to gate back to the shrinking plane of shadow, where he likely said terrible things about the parentage of Bigby, Aramil, and Vincent (about whom he was correct). Two additional heals and an assist from Kesi later, Pavo defeated the Ironwyrm golem.

The body of the poor, defenseless shadowmage was looted by the players, who got a ring of protection +5/includes feather fall (usable on up to six others per day), bracers of defense +6, boots of flying, a cloak of shadow, and a manual on how to make a particular rare type of golem.

XP: (18th)Kesi 6,200; (19th)Bigby, Roderick, Aramil, Vincent, Pavo, and Flint 4,800

Post-adventure wrap-up. Kesi and Roderick convince Kendrick to return the stone to Sorgul, and thus can no longer track chaos. Pavo learns that Giants are scouting Blanan, and some are teleporting away when discovered, greatly bothering the dwarves. Vincent worked the house of Mercedes as best he could, and Aramil and Flint found the source of the mysterious goblin deaths…the great Dray of the Valley of Uplift have founded the city of Aramil about 30 miles from the barony of Mercedes and started ridding the area of goblins. They have been tracking the adventures of the party through a nut given to Flint (a buckeye) as a parting gift when the party left uplift.

Much, much happens over the next two years…but that's for V2 to discover (and the occasional one-shot, like the Assault on Blanan, the Assault on Mercedes, and the Assault on Bigby. So says history….

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